the time has come (let us be brave)
by misandrywitch
Summary: In which Lily places a bet, does some investigating, gets in a fight, fixes a broken nose and learns a few things about her friends, that idiot James Potter, and herself. Three very complicated weeks towards the end of the year, because that's the only time anything actually happens at Hogwarts right? (Lily-centric, eventual R/S and a little bit of L/J).
1. Chapter 1- Friday

June 1976

Chapter 1- Friday

It all starts with a bet.

If she really thought about it, Lily Evans would probably say that it started when she stepped off the Hogwarts Express at the age of 11 and met the two dark-haired, wicked-eyed boys who would become known as "Black and Potter," or alternatively "The biggest berks I've ever met." But in her mind, the series of very strange events that heralded the last few weeks of her sixth year at Hogwarts would never have happened as they did if she hadn't placed the stupid bet with Sirius Black. And the bet begins one lovely, sun-drenched Friday afternoon.

It's double Charms with the Hufflepuffs, which is usually a good thing. Lily admires Professor Flitwick, and is generally pretty good at Charms. She, Dorcas Meadowes and Mary McDonald typically make a point of sticking together (being the three most sensible Gryffindor sixth-year girls, in Lily's opinion), but this particular day they are joined by Alice Fortescue. in their year in Hufflepuff. The class is still struggling its way through using non-verbal spells, which Lily finds to be particularly difficult, and they're supposed to be charming goblets filled with vinegar to wine without using any words. Mary, looking very pleased with herself, has already managed it. Lily can't do non-verbal spells well without a great deal of concentration, and she can't concentrate because of two sniggering voices sitting a few rows back from her.

She isn't alone.

"Mister Black!" Professor Flitwick has apparently had enough as well, unusual for him. He's usually quite accommodating of chatter in his classes, but today his eyes are narrowed. "If you don't mind keeping your voice down—your wine looks excellent, by the way, I don't know how you managed to turn it into a nice Chianti like that though I must applaud you on it. But the rest of this class is trying very hard to accomplish this and they probably find it very difficult to manage anything expensive with you carrying on as you do. If something is that important that you and Mister Potter must discuss it right now, you can tell the whole class."

Sirius Black, long dark hair, aristocratic bone structure, flashing grey eyes, smirks.

"Nothing so terribly important, professor," he starts and Lily rolls her eyes, preparing herself for the oncoming wave of bullshit. "I'm just in a really brilliant mood. Though of course it's hard not to, seeing dulcet tones and rather enviable whiskers for two solid hours on a Friday afternoon!"

He has the rest of the class's attention and he knows it. He grins. James Potter grins. Even Dorcas snorts, then tries to cover it up with a cough. Flitwick sighs good-humouredly. He seems to know what is coming.

"What on earth could make you happier than that?" he says.

"Well," Black shrugs nonchalantly. "I had sausages for breakfast, it's a beautiful sunny day and my afternoon is stretching wide and free in front of me—"

"With the exception of the essay I'm assigning you for homework, I hope," Flitwick interjects.

"Of course! Of course. And once I finish it, I plan to frolic across the lawn and tickle the giant squid. I've got a box of extra dark chocolate from Honeydukes hiding under my bed, a pretty great prank to plan, the last Quidditch match of the year on the horizon and maybe most importantly Professor, I've just started a new relationship and I'm really cheerful about it!"

"Be that as it may, please kindly refrain from discussing the particulars of your love life in my class, Mister Black." Sirius winks. "Mister Pettigrew, do not drink from that goblet! I assure you it will be quite disappointing. Back to work!"

And the class resumes order.

Black is right about one thing—it is a beautiful afternoon. Lily manages to successfully changes her vinegar to a passable Chardonnay, stays to help Flitwick clear up and then heads out onto the Hogwarts front lawn to meet Mary, Dorcas, Alice and Amelia Bones under their usual sun-dappled spot on the grass. They're stretched out underneath a tree and Lily joins them, slinging her bag off her shoulder and sitting down in the cool grass. It's May, just warm enough for Lily to want to kick off her shoes and tie her hair out of her face, and not a cloud in sight. Lily is preparing to close her eyes and enjoy the sun when Mary brings it up.

"So who's Sirius Black dating, then?" she asks, blonde hair spilling over her arms, which are crossed under her head.

"Who cares," Lily mutters.

"No, it is a fair question," Alice, brown bob, warm brown eyes and dimples, agrees. "Usually he brags about it, you know? Wants everyone to know who he's messing about with. And he has been all cheerful lately but he hasn't said anything."

"Hasn't hexed Snape in a solid week, it feels like," Amelia, who has dark curls and sensible glasses and a perfect hourglass figure, adds.

"Both of them deserve to get hexed," Lily is not in the mood to discuss Black or Snape right now. "And any girl willing to date Sirius Black's missing half a brain to begin with."

"He's not so bad," Dorcas argues.

All four girls look sharply up at her.

"And it isn't me!" Dorcas protests. "That was one kiss, and it was fourth year and I was very ill informed, thanks."

"It's someone, you're right Mary," Amelia agrees contemplatively. "He's acting far too happy considering that Gryffindor is playing Slytherin for the Cup next week. Usually he's all on edge."

"He's not because he knows, like I know, that we're gonna win!" Mary says.

"Hm," Amelia says. She's in Ravenclaw and while she doesn't play Quidditch herself, her brother does and her loyalty is first and foremost to him. Ravenclaw came very close to beating Gryffindor but lost spectacularly a few weeks ago. Amelia is still bitter about it. Poor Alice, in Hufflepuff, has been out of the running for ages.

Luckily, loud shouting and splashing from the lake interrupt what probably would have been a pretty nasty argument. Peter Pettigrew and Sirius are leaping around in the lake, trousers rolled up over their knees. One of the giant squid's tentacles is waving lazily in the air, splashing water at them as they bellow and shout and shove each other. James is lying on his stomach underneath a nearby tree, the one the four Gryffindor boys usually claim during the spring months. His shirtsleeves are rolled up over his elbows and he's making notes on a roll of parchment; probably Quiddich plans and not an essay, Lily thinks. Remus Lupin is stretched out on the grass next to him with his book bag under his head, his eyes closed.

"You would have to be mad though," Alice says.

"So it's got to be someone he's not keen to show off!" Mary says.

"I feel like one of us would have noticed something, don't you?" Alice says. "Frank hasn't mentioned anything to me, and they're pretty good mates."

"Maybe she goes to another school?" Mary suggests. They watch Sirius dance backwards out of the water and towards the tree where his friends are sitting.

"Maybe someone Muggleborn?" Dorcas asks. "And he doesn't want his family or his brother to find out so he's been really secretive about it?"

Mary claps her hands. "Forbidden romance!" she cackles.

"I don't know if he's got the depth," Amelia says.

"He does. He just hides it well," Dorcas argues.

"Oh honestly," Lily snaps. "If you're so interested, why don't you just ask him yourself?"

"Maybe I will," Mary says. "If I can't figure it out first."

"SIRIUS BLACK IF YOU DRIP ON MY BOOKS I WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU LOVE," Remus bellows suddenly from the lake, and Sirius dashes away up the lawn cackling madly, water flying out of his hair.

"Ugh," Lily says.


	2. Chapter 2- Sunday

Chapter 2: Sunday

The subject doesn't come up again for the rest of the weekend, which Lily spends alternatively plowing through 4 essays and shouting at anyone who makes too much noise in the library. They are all busy enough that Lily hopes the entire topic will get dropped altogether; she gets really tired very quickly of idle gossip, especially when it has something to do with Black and Potter, which it usually does.

But she comes down to dinner that Sunday to sit next to Mary, who is deep in conversation with James about the upcoming Quiddich match, which will seal the Inter-House championship.

"Longbottom just has to remember not to catch the Snitch until we are fifty points up from Slytherin. Otherwise, we won't have enough points to win the Cup."

"I know, Potter, I know," Mary is saying. James, unsurprisingly, has been manic about the match and seems to spend a good deal of his time (when he's not harassing Lily) coming up winning strategies and leaping out of closets and from around corners to quiz his players about his plans. "That's where you, me and Weasley come in, and you know we're the best Chasers at this school right now."

"As long as we remember that, the Cup will be ours!" James crows, driving his enthusiasm home by waving his hands enthusiastically in front of Mary's face. "They won't have a chance. They aren't as fast as we are, they don't have a Seeker as good as Longbottom and their Beaters aren't composed of a flying mountain on a broom and a fearless madman."

"No chance," Mary says smugly. "I can't wait to see the look on their smarmy faces."

"Especially Snape's smarmy face!" James agrees, then starts when he noticed Lily has joined them. He looks rather uncomfortable, coughs, then covers it up by making a big show of grinning and handing her the pumpkin juice. He never used to have any qualms about insulting Snape in front of her, Lily thinks, but now he does. It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that she doesn't talk to Severus anymore. Something happened, something bad, at the beginning of the school year, and now the four Gryffindor boys seem to simply avoid him whenever possible, rather than purposefully antagonize him. They all tiptoed around Remus too, for a few weeks, and he wouldn't tell Lily what was wrong. It seems to have blown over now, whatever it was, but she's still a little curious.

"I'd like tea, actually," Lily says, brushing James's hand away.

"You coming to the match, Evans?" He's undeterred.

"Well, Mary will be playing in it, won't she?"

"Well, of course. She's a great Chaser, you know. We're the best bloody team in this school right now! No way we won't win."

"Doubt it, if you keep on like that," a voice from behind them. Sirius slides into the seat across from James, Remus and Peter at his heels, and starts piling food onto his plate. "Your head'll get so big that you won't be able to get your broom off the ground and I'll have to cart you around on mine." James gestures rudely towards him, laughing. "MacDonald, Evans. You're both looking ravishing this evening," Sirius says.

"Oh, knock it off," Remus says cheerfully. Sirius leans across the table and steals his dinner roll. In retaliation, Remus jabs his fork into a piece of Sirius's steak and shoves it into his mouth, raising his eyebrows in defiance. Sirius snatches the fork right out of Remus's mouth and flings it down the table, where it clatters into someone's bowl of soup. Both boys freeze, then burst into laughter.

"The Cup is ours this year," Peter says. "Makes up for us losing the House Cup."

"Obviously," James winks. If Lily keeps rolling her eyes, she is going to be stuck cross-eyed.

"We wouldn't be losing the House Cup if you lot hadn't decided to turn one of the dungeons into a swamp last month," she says.

"But it was a brilliant swamp," Peter says. "Filch mopped it up for a week."

"Talking about the match?" Dorcas sits down next to Lily, flipping her dark braid over her shoulder. There is something about these four boys that attracts people and onlookers, so they are in the middle of the table and the seats surrounding them are crammed. Lily usually tries to avoid the whole situation, but her options are to sit with Mary and Dorcas in the middle of the table or sit by herself at the end.

Mary's got a pretty level head on her shoulders; she's smart and bold and energetic, but also practical and thorough. Dorcas is a bit more fanciful, but she's quieter and usually isn't impressed by flashy magic (Divination and then Potions being her best subjects). And yet they both get caught up in the hijinks of these four boys. Even Lily's friends outside of her House, the ones that don't possess typical Gryffindor sensibilities and therefore aren't impressed by irritating feats of daring and explosions and grand gestures, do. Lily has never understood it, and she doesn't understand it now. She likes Remus quite a lot; they are both Prefects and study together quite often. He is the most collected person Lily has ever met—and at the moment he is howling with laughter with both of his hands (lined with pale white scars) over his face as Sirius attempts to levitate the fork back down the table and drops it right into Kingsley Shacklebolt's glass of pumpkin juice. Lily has nothing in common with Peter Pettigrew, though he seems a nice enough boy most of the time, if just incredibly boy-like. Black she finds excessive; too loud, too handsome, too clever, too aware of all of these facts. And Potter…

Well. Lily's life would be a whole lot easier if he wasn't also handsome.

"Yes ma'am," James says agreeably.

"Good week then!" Dorcas says. "The match Wednesday, Hogsmede trip over the weekend, then one more week of classes before exams."

"Excellent!" Sirius has retrieved his fork. "I'm almost out of Dungbombs, which is a real shame. Used up most of them when I was levitating them into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom last week, did you hear? Filch was livid."

"Murderous," Peter agrees.

"Putrescent with rage," Remus says. "He got all quivery and shakey—it was very frightening."

"Any plans for Hogsmede then, Red?" James says.

"Don't call me that," Lily says, spearing broccoli on her fork. "Not even my dad calls me that, honestly. You sound like you jumped out of a bad film."

"So that's a no, then. Luckily for you, I don't either! What do you say—Hogsmede with me?"

Lily turns and meets his eyes, which are very blue and twinkling and confident and also—hopeful? Lily is pretty sure he only asks her out because she's completely uninterested in him, that he doesn't actually have any real intentions towards her. She's pretty sure. She scoffs, to cover up any doubt.

"In your dreams, Potter," she says.

James grins cheekily. "A day with you in Hogsmede—you are describing my dreams Evans, how did you know? That and winning the Quiddich World Cup one day and maybe becoming Head Boy because it would please my Mum—that's all I want."

"Out of the three of those, you're much more likely to become Head Boy," Lily says. "And you got detention last week for charming Hagrid's chickens to breathe fire."

"So if I become Head Boy, you'll go to Hogsmede with me?" James says.

"Maybe," Lily eats more broccoli, ending the conversation.

"Anyone else got a date to Hogsmede then?" Mary asks. "Other than Alice, of course."

"I do," Peter says, shyly and Sirius slaps him on the shoulder and whistles. "And again, I'm not telling you who she is because I know you'll just heckle her. I don't want her to end up with spots on her face that read 'Peter's bit' or something."

"Smart lad," Dorcas says.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" James looks affronted.

"Not a bad idea though," Sirius says, and they laugh.

"But no one else? Sirius? Didn't you say you've got a new girlfriend?" Mary's like a dog with a bit of old steak.

"New relationship, yup,"Sirius says.

"Not taking her to Hogsmede?"

"Nah, don't think so," Sirius shrugs. "Got more important things to do than prove anything to you lot, don't I? Got a prank to plan, involving the Slytherin's dinner on Saturday. Exactly what you think it is!"

"But who is she?" Dorcas is leaning forward now, interested. Behind them, Peter and James cackle together.

"Why do you want to know?" Sirius smirks. "Got a little crush, Dorcas? Too bad—I'm saving myself for McGonagall."

"No," Dorcas snaps. "Just curious."

"And you too, Mary? You curious?"

Mary shrugs. "Well, sure."

"And Evans? Tell me you're not a little intrigued."

"Mostly want to find the girl so I can warn her," Lily says.

"Cause I've got a brilliant idea," Sirius says. "Now that I've got your interest, it'll be no fun if I just tell you. We bet on it. 10 galleons to you three if you can guess it by, say, the end of the school year. Gives you three weeks. 10 galleons to me if you can't guess it!"

"What if this person doesn't want you to guess it?" Peter asks, concerned.

"You'll never guess it," James adds, helpfully.

"I'm pretty sure they're fine with it," Remus says. "I bet they'll think it's funny."

"You're on," Mary says automatically. She's competitive. "James, you know who it is right? You can moderate. But you've got to give us some hints. Dorcas?"

"Okay, sure,"Dorcas agrees.

"Evans?" James waggles his eyebrows at her.

"Absolutely not," Lily says. "You could be dating Nearly Headless Nick for all I care, Black. Cause I don't care."

"It's not Nearly Headless Nick," Peter says.

"Come on, Lily," Sirius plants both his hands on the table and leans towards her. No one has ever been able to deny that he looks good while smirking. Lily suspects he does it in front of a mirror. She frowns back at him. "A little flutter never hurt anyone. Mary and Dorcas are into it. Or are you afraid I'll beat you."

"You never beat me," Lily snaps.

"I beat you in Defense last year," Sirius says. "And on our last Charms exam."

"By one point!" Lily says furiously.

"And I didn't even study," Sirius finishes.

And that's enough. Lily reaches into her pocket and smacks a 10-galleon piece into Sirius's palm. "Fine," she hisses. Dorcas and Mary are staring at her, and so are James and Peter. Remus, at across from Sirius, mildly eats the last piece of his roast. "You're on. Last day of school, I'll have it."

"What if you break up between now and then?" Dorcas suggests. Remus coughs on his roast, and Sirius leans over to pound enthusiastically him on the back.

"They won't break up," Peter pipes up. "They're pretty, uh, serious. Absolutely no pun intended, Merlin's pants."

"This is a long time coming, you could say," Remus adds, once he's got his breath back. "Some of us have been waiting for it for quite some time." James and Peter both clutch each other in their mirth.

"And your hints," Sirius digs in his own pockets and pulls out a 10 galleon piece, which he shows to Lily. "Okay. You get three. First—it's someone who goes, or has gone, to Hogwarts. So nobody from another school or anything. Second—it's someone all three of you know relatively well."

"So it's not some nobody in Ravenclaw that nobody ever talks to?" Dorcas says.

"Well, could be in Ravenclaw—not giving that away. But you know them. And finally—it's someone pretty out of the ordinary. Not somebody you'd expect."

"Not at all," Peter grins.

"Not even a little," adds James.

"Fine," Lily says again, already regretting her choice. And then shake on it.


	3. Chapter 3- Sunday evening

"What we've got to do," Amelia says "is narrow down our options." She's the kind of Ravenclaw who likes lists, and charts, and bullet points. She isn't technically involved in the bet, but she can't pass up an opportunity to organize the girls of Hogwarts into a list. The tip of her quill is hovering impatiently over her parchment.

"I think it'll be easier if we start with all the girls who it could _not_ be and go from there," Dorcas adds.

"You're making it sound like Black's gotten with every girl in the school! I don't know if he's gotten with any, honestly."

"He hasn't," Dorcas says. "But he could, if he wanted. That's the problem. There aren't many girls who wouldn't date him."

"I wouldn't date him," Lily says adamantly.

Alice shrugs. "I would, if just to find out if what I've heard about him is true."

"It's true," Dorcas giggles. "He's a great kisser."

"Not exactly what I meant," Alice says. "You know what they say about pureblood boys."

"That they're inbred?"

"Not exactly."

"Well, I can confirm it's true about Frank…" Alice winks.

"Wonder if that holds true with Potter too," Mary muses, and Dorcas, who has always gone a little gooey where James Potter is concerned, giggles.

"Oh for God's… well it's none of us," Lily is determined to get this over and done with as soon as she can to prevent any further conversation about what exactly is good about pureblood boys. Nothing, from her point of view. Occasionally they have nice hair. And rather fit calves. But that's it. Lily smacks herself in the forehead.

"And it's not anyone from my dorm, I'm almost positive. I'll check though," Alice says. "And I'll ask Frank, to see if he knows."

"Yeah, do that." Amelia chews on the end of her quill. "And no way is it Mafalda, she'd have blabbed if it was." Mafalda Hopkirk, 6th year Hufflepuff, notorious for her big mouth. "And it's not Lucinda Talkalot. And probably not Emmeline Vance either." She moves to add the names to her list but Lily grabs her hand.

"No, wait," she says. "It's someone out of the ordinary."

"Emmeline is really pretty," Dorcas says.

"But Emmeline's in Slytherin. We can rule them out, I think," Mary is perched on the end of her bed, Dorcas next to her with her arms crossed on the bedpost. Amelia is sitting at Lily's desk and Alice with Lily on her bed. The other two girls in their room aren't in, and so can't complain about non-Gryffindor girls hanging around.

"It is someone out of the ordinary though," Alice points out.

Mary shakes her head, long blonde hair catching torchlight. "It's one thing to be out of the ordinary and another to be completely and totally out of character. If we were guessing someone else, like Lupin or Lovegood or someone, I'd say maybe—not everyone in Slytherin hangs out with that horrible lot of—you know—" she trails off, looking at Lily.

"It's okay," Lily says. "Snape's lot, just say it. I've accepted it's not going to change."

"Right, Snape's lot."

"Easier if you were still talking to him," Amelia says. "He'd probably know."

"I'll ask Emmeline," Lily says. "She's was prefect with me last year, I know her well enough. Dorcas, you and I will ask the rest of the Gryffindors. Mary, you ask the other people on the Quiddich team to see if they know anything. Otherwise we've got to just keep an eye on him to see who he talks to that's any different than usual. Sirius Black isn't the most subtle of people, this isn't going to be that difficult." She stands and makes to head out of their room.

"You're awfully determined about this," Dorcas laughs.

"I don't want him to beat me," Lily says. "Not over something stupid."

"Him being Black? Or Potter?"

"Mary, just shut up," Lily snaps, and storms out of the dorm.

The whole situation is nagging at her, so Lily decides to get it out of the way as soon as she can. She goes in search of Emmeline Vance, who she finds in the library. She was a prefect last year when Lily became one, and now she's Head Girl. She's a very unlikely person for Sirius Black to be dating, but Lily supposes that's the point.

Emmeline is tall and slender, with dark hair and strong, full brows. She's in Slytherin, but she's never hung around with Malfoy, any of the Blacks, Avery, Mulciber or Snape. She wants to be an Auror. She's hunched over a textbook, undoubtedly studying for NEWTS that begin next week, when Lily approaches her table, but she glances up when she hears footsteps.

"Lily, hi," she says. Emmeline has some of aristocratic beauty that Narcissa Malfoy and, one could argue, Sirius, possess, but none one of the attitude. "How are you?"

"Fine," Lily says. "I've got a bit of an odd question."

Emmeline stretches, her back pops. "I need a break anyway. Avoid the Magical Theory NEWT, when you get there. Go right ahead.'  
"You aren't dating Sirius Black, by any chance?" Lily decides to just bite the bullet on this one. Emmeline stares at her.

"No," she says slowly. "No, definitely not."

"You, um, you sure?"

"Lily," Emmeline is looking at her very seriously down her long nose. "If I was even interested in Sirius Black, which I am absolutely not, I would never date him for the simple fact that I'd probably get cursed in my bed by certain members of my House. Anyway, I don't like pretty boys."

Lily clears her throat, feeling very silly. "You don't know who is, by any chance?"

"I try not to pay much attention to anything Sirius Black is doing that doesn't involve breaking school rules," Emmeline says. "It's a good general principle to adopt with the whole damn family, I think. Why on earth are you asking?"

"I've got a bet on with him that I can guess who it is by the end of the year," Lily admits. "It's stupid, I know, I'm a bit annoyed I agreed to it now."

"Gryffindors," Emmeline shakes her head.

"I just want to beat him!" Lily says. "He shouldn't get to win at everything, even if it's stupid."

Emmeline considers her for a long moment, playing with the end of her braid. "I'll ask around," she says finally. "I don't think it's anyone in my House, but I can check if you like. He is a bit of a bastard, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Lily says. "Thanks." And she leaves the library feeling significantly more cheerful and heads back to the dorm, where she and Alice play a very close game of Exploding Snap. Mary comes in after a few minutes and joins them.

"Black snuck out of the common room about a half an hour ago, right when I came downstairs," she says. "So I followed him, all the way outside and behind the greenhouses. I was sure I was going to catch him right away—that's where everyone goes to make out, you know? But he noticed me and just went 'Bloddy hell MacDonald, can't a guy have a cigarette in peace?'" She flings her head of gold hair. "So I hid around the corner for a while but all he did was smoke and then head back inside. Frankly a waste of time."

"Maybe a little subtlety might be in order," Alice laughs.

Frank Longbottom, who's in his last year at and also beginning to study for NEWTS, cheers Alice on as she loses to Lily, and then admits he's got no idea either.

"I thought you might because you play Quidditch with him," Alice says. Frank shrugs.

"I mean, we're mates. We get along fine. He just doesn't exactly tell me his deepest, darkest secrets, you know?"

"Damn," Lily says. She glances over towards Peter, James, Sirius and Remus, who are sitting in a circle in the corner of the common room they claimed as theirs way back in first year. James is reading a battered copy of _Quidditch Through the Ages _and Sirius is sketching something on a roll of parchment; he keeps frowning and scribbling lines out with a Muggle ballpoint pen. Peter and Remus are concentrating on a game of Wizard's chess, which it looks like Remus is solidly winning; Lily remembers he mentioned once that his mother was a chess champion when she attended Oxford. Peter says something and points at something on Sirius's parchment and they laugh in union.

The only people Sirius tells his deepest darkest secrets are all sitting in that corner, Lily thinks. It's hard to remember a time in her Hogwarts experience where the four of them weren't sitting in some corner or stuck halfway up some tree or smuggling noxious potion ingredients through a secret passage; there had to have been a time when the four of them weren't the four of them, but it's lost in Lily's blurred memories of her first few months at school. Lily loves her friends, she loves them a lot, but sometimes she misses the conspiratorial closeness that she and Severus had, the years and years of inside jokes and shared secrets. She doesn't regret her decision, not at all, but she sees that closeness in those four boys and feels momentarily empty.


	4. Chapter 4- Monday

The next morning marks the last week of classes before exams begin; Monday is eaten up with an extremely difficult Potions class, where Lily succeeds in brewing a perfect Babbling Beverage, which causes Slughorn to crow with delight and give her 5 point to Gryffindor. Lily's pleased, especially because she's the first to get it right and she notices Snape, whose potion is also very good, staring at her out of the corner of his eye. She blissfully ignores him. Sirius she keeps an eye on through class, but he partners up with Peter and doesn't really speak to anyone else.

Lily has Charms and Ancient Runes in the afternoon, and a Prefect's meeting after dinner. Mary goes off to an extra-long Quidditch practice; James is determined to beat Slytherin in the upcoming match and has been spouting off about it all afternoon. Mary winks at Lily on her way out the door, obviously determined to have a word with a few of the Quidditch team during practice.

The Prefect's meeting is a bit of a waste of time, but Lily sits next to Remus as she usually does. They're wrapping up and Lily leans over to him as he's packing up his bag, which seems to contain an extraordinarily unusual number of old books and rolls of cracking parchment.

"There's no chance I can talk you into giving me a hint with this bet?" she says, giving him her best winning smile. It works on most people, particularly boys. It doesn't seem to have any effect on Remus, who is handsome in a bookish, gangly way, but has never seemed to even glance at Lily like that. Or anyone, really. He rearranges a few pages in his bag and smiles mildly.

"Sorry, no," he says.

"Remus, come on," Lily implores. Remus glances up at her, his honey-colored eyes twinkling.

"You didn't really think that would work, did you?" he laughs.

Lily pouts. "But you do know who it is, don't you?"

"Oh yes," Remus says. "I do indeed. See you later, Lily. I'm off to the library for a bit." And he strolls out the door, looking a lot more cheerful than Lily feels at the moment. Lily stomps back the common room and reluctantly studies for Transfiguration with Dorcas, who reports that nobody else has had any luck.

The Quidditch team tramps in an hour later, grinning and splattered with mud. Mary catches Lily's eye and she and Dorcas follow her up the stairs, where Mary is peeling off her dirty uniform and dropping it into her laundry hamper.

"No good," Mary grunts, wrapping a towel around her middle. "I asked around and nobody seems to have a clue. He spent the whole time showing how he can hang from his knees from his broomstick. I thought Potter was going to take his head off." She vanishes into the bathroom to have a shower.

"Black's being awfully tight lipped about it," Dorcas is changing into her nightgown.

"WAIT!" Mary bellows from the bathroom. There's a clatter and the door flies open, steam pouring into their bedroom. "I've just had an idea!"

"Finish your shower first, you're letting the damp in here," Dorcas says.

"Oh, shut it," Mary vanishes back into the bathroom and the water stops running; she reappears a moment later with her bathrobe on.

"I was just thinking," she says, sitting down on her bed and starting to work a hairbrush through her wet hair. "What if it's Marlene McKinnon?"

"Marlene? Dating Sirius Black?" Lily frowns. "I still write to her quite a bit, you know, and she hasn't mentioned it."

"He did make a point of saying it was someone who goes or did go to Hogwarts," Mary says. "And she's been gone for two years now, she fits."

"She and Sirius were friends when she was in school," Dorcas has climbed into bed and has her Potions text propped up on her knees. "And Merlin knows he dresses like her."

"Black leather does not a relationship make," Lily says. "I just can't see Marlene wanting to date someone two years younger than she is, you know? Especially not a prat like Black."

"I don't know, Lily," Dorcas says. "It's not a bad theory."

"I know Marlene pals around with the Prewett's quite a bit these days," Mary points out. "And Black and Potter hero worship them."

"If I had the option between either Gideon or Fabian Prewett and Sirius Black, I'd choose a Prewett. Doesn't matter which one," Lily says. "But I guess it is possible. It's a great deal more likely than anyone else I can think of."

"I thought so," Mary looks very pleased with herself as she climbs into bed and turns off the light.

The next day passes slowly, as if in anticipation of the match. The heat is oppressive, but Lily forces herself to study anyway. She and Remus spend a few hours studying for Potions, which he's hopeless at, and he still doesn't cave in to her attempts to weasel the information out of him. He even says no at her offer to buy him a significant quantity of Honeydukes best at the upcoming Hogsmede trip.

"I got a lot of chocolate for Christmas one year from my Mum," Remus rolls his eyes, "and Sirius won't let it die so now the whole school thinks I've got a sweet tooth the size of France. As far as rumors go, it could be worse I guess. Sorry, Lily, you need to figure it out on your own."

Lily thinks about Snape, who is so determined that Remus is hiding something with his frequent absences, and sighs.

Wednesday, the day of the match, dawns clear and bright, but is spoiled almost immediately at breakfast. Lily's reading the Daily Prophet over orange juice and sausages when the Owl Post arrives. Remus, to her right, rips open a letter and so do James and Dorcas. A school owl drops off a letter from Petunia into Lily's lap. Lily opens it, and grimaces.

"Ah, the chickens are hatching," Remus is scanning his mother's letter. "Oh Merlin, she sent pictures." He rifles through several Muggle photographs of baby chicks and laughs, then looks up at the large brown barn owl fluttering over his head. "Tell them I'll write them back next week, after Tuesday's over," he says. "She'll worry otherwise." The owl departs.

"About your furry little problem?" Sirius, on Remus's right, asks, picking up a letter of his own. Lily doesn't know what he means. She heard Mary say once that Remus has a badly behaved pet rabbit at home.

"Yes," Remus digs into his waffle with gusto. "You know how she worries."

"Why the long face, Evans?" James, who is sitting a couple seats away, asks.

"It's nothing," Lily says.

"Doesn't look like nothing."

Lily considers for a moment. "It's my sister," she says. "She's getting married this summer."

"Oh," James frowns. "Older sister, right?"

Lily stares at him, surprised he remembers. "Yes, she's older. She just finalized the date of the wedding, that's what the letter's about. How on earth did you remember that?"

"Dunno. And that's bad?"

"I guess," Lily frowns, not really sure how to put her feelings into words. "She loves this bloke, Vernon. And he seems to treat her alright. But he, he's mean. And he sells drills."

"Drills?"

"They're like, I don't know, they're mechanical devices that Muggles use to put in screws and things."

"Right," James nods. "No idea. That's alright. Sounds awful, though."

"He is," Lily agrees. "Give him a wand and a bit of power and he'd probably end up a bit like Avery. And I've got to go to their wedding and be happy for her."

James looks like he's about to respond when Dorcas, who is reading a letter too, covers her mouth with her hand and lets out a little gasp.

"What's wrong?" Peter, to James's left, asks.

"My Mum just wrote to me. I guess there's been another attack on a Muggle village in Wales. Some wizards, I guess a witness says four or five of them in black robes and masks, tortured ten people and murdered two." Dorcas's face twists.

"That's awful," Lily whispers.

"That makes it the third time it's happened in the last two months," James says. "With crazies in masks and all. My dad wrote me about it last week. He's furious about it—can't find anything to connect the attacks to anyone."

"What does your dad do?" Lily feels a bit silly that she doesn't know this.

"He's an Auror!" Dorcas says. "One of the best. My Mum works under him."

"Anyway," James shrugs. "He hasn't had any luck finding out who it is, and he's pissed."

"I've got a pretty good guess," Sirius says darkly from behind his letter, which is written in blue ink and appears to be several pages long.

"Who's that from?" Remus is frowning suddenly, looking alert and attentive.

"Andromeda. She found out about it too, and she's got suspicions. I agree with her." Sirius has got to be referring to his cousin. "Exactly who you think. Bella, and Rodolphus and Rastaban Lestrange, and Malfoy."

Dorcas frowns. "Why don't you tell James's dad, if you think you know who it is? Can't he do something? Someone has to." Sirius laughs bitterly.

"I'm sure he's got an idea," Lily looks to Sirius and James for confirmation. "They do seem the type, don't they."

"There's just no proof. Even Aurors can't march into Castle Loony and attempt to arrest Bellatrix Black without proof. My Mum'd murder them, and call it self defense. Bella might be sadistic and cruel and fucked up, but she's powerful and she's smart."

"Are Andromeda and Ted still hiding?" James asks.

Sirius nods. "Yeah," he says shortly. He stands, swinging one long leg over his chair and grabbing the letter. "The price you pay for being the second-most hated Black family member."

"Second-most?" Lily asks. Sirius grins, but it's a little forced, a mockery of his usual dark amusement.

"Let's just say that Andromeda might have conned my aunt and my parents out of several thousand Galleons and then run off and married a Muggleborn, but at least she was sorted into Slytherin." And he stomps away. Remus, looking worried, pushes his chair back and follows him out of the hall.

Lily stares down at her own letter from her sister, and thinks that maybe it could be worse. And then James, desperate to break the silence, leans across the table in her direction.

"Match this afternoon," he says. He runs his fingers through his hair. "Give me a kiss for luck, Evans?"

Lily resists the urge to fling her full glass of pumpkin juice in his face.


	5. Chapter 5- Wednesday

Afternoon classes are cancelled because of the match, but they still have to attend morning ones; Wednesday mornings mean Charms and then Potions. Nobody seems to be able to pay attention; the Gryffindor Slytherin rivalry is legendary, and everyone seems filled with excitement and trepidation. The team members are beside themselves. Mary, sitting next to Lily in Potions, is jittering up and down in her seat so fervently that she has trouble slicing her gurdyroots. James, across the room, keeps tugging his hands through his hair and whispering to Sirius, who finally smacks him upside the head and strides out of the class.

"Now now now, settle down everyone," Slughorn says. "I think, under the circumstances, we'll let class out early, hm? All the best of luck to Slytherin. I'm sorry, I am a bit biased…" The class files out, James muttering violently under his breath, "I'll show you biased you old goat…"

There's a good twenty five minutes til Charms starts, so Lily decides to wander out towards the Great Hall. She's halfway there, deciding on a longer detour to avoid Peeves, who is unscrewing chandeliers at the end of a hallway, when she hears extremely angry shouting from around the corner near the Transfiguration classroom.

Lily draws her wand, just in case, and runs around the corner to find two dark-haired young men locked together, wrestling violently. She can tell, after a moment, that it is Sirius and Regulus Black; Regulus has a fistful of Sirius's long hair and one arm around his neck, Sirius is elbowing his younger brother ferociously in the stomach and trying to throw him off. He succeeds after a moment and shoves Regulus backwards; he slams into the wall and Sirius throws himself at him, grappling for his tie and yanking on it. Regulus knees Sirius in the gut, and then kicks at his shins viciously before seizing him around the neck again.

"Oi!" Lily bellows. "Come on, knock it off!"

Both Blacks freeze and glance up at her, almost-twin features furious. Regulus's bottom lip is split, and Sirius is glaring. Neither of them move.

"I'm not joking," Lily says. "I will go get a teacher!"

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Evans," Sirius shoves Regulus off him in disgust, slamming him backwards into the wall again. Regulus shoves back and Sirius stumbles backwards then starts forward again.

"Mister Black!" A much more commanding voice than Lily's rings out from down the hallway. Professor McGonagall. Both Sirius and Regulus jump and swing around. "And Mister Black! What on earth do you think you are doing?"

Sirius swings into action, slinging one long arm over his brother's shoulders and flashing McGonagall a dazzling, cocky grin.

"Absolutely nothing, Professor," he says. "Just having a bit of a brotherly tussle, you know, all in good fun. I do miss the little cabbage when he's all the way at the other end of the castle! We like a bit of a wrestle."

"Really," McGonagall crosses her arms. She does not look very convinced. "Mister Black?"

"Absolutely," Regulus nods fervently. "Always have. I hardly ever see my brother anymore, Professor." His poker face is remarkably good.

"Precisely," Sirius says. He's turned on the charm now, his blinding, crooked smile and bright eyes partly obscured by his dark fringe. He can turn it on and off like a tap, and it's infuriating but admittedly amazing. Lily didn't understand for a long time why fewer people don't find Sirius Black absolutely irritating and infantile; she's learned that it's because most people never see that side of him. "Simple brotherly affection. Brings us back to our childhood days, doesn't it Reg?."

"Wasn't much else to do in our home but roughhouse," Regulus supplies.

"And roughhouse we did!" Sirius is on a roll now. "Harkens back to a simpler era, a much more innocent and carefree time. We used to chase each other around and around our home, avoiding the 4th century Black family vases, under the watchful eye of the severed elf heads on the wall…"

McGonagall rolls her eyes, and turns to Lily. "Miss Evans? Is this true?"

"As far as I can tell," Lily lies. "I don't know about the elf heads… but they were just messing about, Professor." Both Blacks grin very similar grins; Regulus looks rather desperate. McGonagall's eyes are very stern; Lily feels her insides quivering but holds on to her straight face somehow.

"Very well," McGonagall says after a long moment. "But Mister Black, next time you feel the need to physically demonstrate your brotherly affection, please try to do it somewhere other than right outside my classroom." And she strides away.

"Get off me," Regulus throws Sirius's arms off his shoulder as soon as McGonagall is out of earshot.

"Oh, don't complain, little brother," Sirius snarls, taking a few steps backwards. "I did just get us all out of detention, after all." Regulus glares at him darkly, fingering the cut on his lip. "Or maybe that's what you wanted!" Sirius continues. "A letter home saying that you tried to beat up your disgrace of a brother would certainly make Mummy happy with you, now wouldn't it. Then again, you were Muggle brawling with me, so I don't think she'll be pleased about that." He shrugs. Regulus's face is furious; Sirius's is filled with a dark glee that is much more sinister. They looked like brothers, momentarily united against McGonagall. Now, it's obvious to Lily what the differences are. Standing next to anyone else, Regulus Black at 15 would be handsome; he has glossy dark hair, dark eyes and classic, straight features. Compared to his brother, he looks like a shadow, a bad copy. He doesn't have Sirius's charm, his way with words, the naughty glint in his eye, the cocky twist to his lip. Compared to Sirius, Regulus looks flat.

"Shut up, Sirius," Regulus snaps. "You don't know anything about it. You can't say things like that to me anymore."

"Come on," Lily tries to interject; she reaches out to grab at Sirius's arm, but Sirius shakes her off.

"I know enough," Sirius says. "I'm sure you're clamoring all over her for attention now, trying to prove that you're the son that gets it. She'll understand, if she finds out about you brawling. She knows as well as you do that it's the only way you could ever beat me. I've always been a faster draw than you Reg, and a much better dueler."

"You're not," Regulus says.

"Whatever," Sirius sneers. "I'm not going to argue with you. She knows, and you know and so do I. Do you know what she calls us, to her friends? The heir and the spare."

"Shut up, Sirius, just shut up!"

"It's true!" Sirius says. "I've heard her say it. She had two of us, just in case one went wrong. That's what we are to her, Reg."

Regulus's fist collides with Sirius's face. Blood sprays upwards in an arc, and Sirius stumbles backwards, clutching at his nose. He charges forward again, but Lily decides now is the time to take action; she seizes him bodily around the middle and drags him backwards.

"Get off me Evans, get off," Sirius shouts, but lets Lily grab his arm and start in the other direction.

"Do not push me right now, Black," she snaps.

"I might be the 'spare,'" Regulus shouts after them. "But at least I don't have to rely on a filthy little Mudblood bitch to fight my battles for me!"

Before Sirius can remove his hands from his face, Lily whirls around with her wand out.

"Cor," Sirius says thickly, as he's got both his hands clamped over his nose, which is streaming blood. "That was an impressive Bat Bogey Hex, Evans."

"Thank you," Lily says tartly. "Come on." She drags him around the corner.

"I think the little fucker broke it," Sirius is feeling his nose gingerly."Hopefully his bogeys eat him."

"Stop poking at it, honestly, _boys,_" Lily swats Sirius's hands away. He frowns at her. "Don't get your pants in a twist," Lily growls. "_Episkey,"_ She waves her wand, and Sirius's nose straightens itself. He runs his fingers along it, before winking at her.

"What do you think, Evans? Still on straight? Is my beauty gone?"

Lily sighs. "It's as haughty and aristocratic as it ever was," she says.

"Good," Sirius says. "I couldn't continue living without a haughty and aristocratic nose. So many haughty and aristocratic things have been taken from me, but I can at the very least look the part." He wriggles it experimentally.

"What was that about?" Lily says softly. Sirius meets her eyes and she is momentarily struck by how keen his gaze is, how troubled. That look vanishes as fast as she can spot it, and he's laughing again.

"What it's always about. I think Regulus is a twat. Regulus disagrees."

"Black," Lily crosses her arms and gives Sirius her Prefect Look. She's cultivated it very carefully on First year boys trying to sneak frog spawn into their rooms, Fourth year girls trying to get out of the common room to kiss a boy from another house in the corridor, and James Potter. "I did just save you from detention," Lily presses.

"No offense Evans," Sirius says (Lily's Look didn't seem to have worked), "but I don't think I can stomach a heart to heart with you right now."

"I get it, you know," Lily replies. "Sibling stuff. My sister and I don't exactly get along either. We don't exactly beat each other up in hallways but that's mostly because she wouldn't condescend to be seen in the same room as me right now." She shoves her wand back into her bag to avoid the fact that Sirius is studying her with frightening intensity.

"Do you beat each other up when you are in the same room?" he asks curiously.

"Well, she did slap me last time she saw me," Lily winces. "Because I might have implied that I think her fiance's a pig. But we've never gotten along, not really."

"Well," Sirius says. "My parents are a pair of twisted, sick fucks from a long line of twisted sick fucks, and my dear baby brother just eats it all right up like a twisted sick fuck in training. Their favourite hobby is hating me, which works well for me because I get a great deal of pleasure from hating them too. And we had a great bloody row because they want to know the whereabouts of the only other person in this family who's realized they're all mad so they can hunt her down and, I don't know, brainwash her all over again. So it could be worse." There are spots of colour on Sirius's cheeks and he's breathing rather hard; he looks as though he's surprised himself. He makes a great show of digging around in his pockets and pulling out a cigarette, which he lights with the tip of his wand.

"I," Lily isn't sure what to say, so she settles on, "Don't smoke that inside." Sirius just makes a face.

"Thanks for, you know, backing up my story with McGonagall," he says, breathing out smoke. It curves around his cheekbones and tangles in his hair. He has blood all over his collar.

"The only reason I did it is so you wouldn't have to be in detention tonight instead of playing in the match," Lily says. Sirius looks at her in surprise, then barks out laughter.

"So don't let him win," Lily says, fiercely. Sirius smiles, a small and rather honest one.

"Yes ma'am," he says.


	6. Chapter 6- Wednesday afternoon

Chapter 6: Wednesday afternoon

It's a beautiful, bright afternoon, perfect for watching Quidditch. Lily files into the stands with Dorcas Alice and Amelia, and ends up sitting next to Remus and Peter. Remus sits down and pulls a book out of his bag and into his lap. When Lily raises an eyebrow at him, he shrugs.

"At this point everyone's given up on any chance of me actually following Quidditch," he says. "The intricacies of it go right over my head." Peter snorts.

"I don't think you can count the way Padfoot plays as _intricate._ More like bull in a china shop," he laughs.

"Dog in a china shop?"

"More accurate. Sugar quill?"

"Thanks, Wormtail," Remus takes one and turns a page in his book. Lily rolls her eyes. And then Benjy Fenwick, who is commentating the match, picks up his megaphone and roars "GOOD AFTERNOON HOGWARTS!" Seven figures, clad in scarlet, stride out onto the field, meeting seven green-clad bodies in the middle. Regulus Black, Lily is slightly disappointed to see, is playing. The crowds explode with noise as James shakes the hand of the Slytherin captain, Wilkes. The stands are solidly divided into two huge waves of scarlet and gold and silver and green. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs have all picked sides. Alice borrowed a red and gold shirt from Lily to show her support for Frank. Several Slytherin students have constructed a huge silver paper snake that they're holding up over their heads; it undulates and glitters in the summer breeze . The Gryffindor students brought noisemakers; their side of the stands explodes with noise when James climbs on his broom and kicks off. Peter is waving a huge, homemade banner over his head that reads "LIONS FOR THE CUP!"

"They have this, right? No contest?" Lily asks Alice, who knows the most about Quidditch out of the four of them. She chews her bottom lip.

"I'd like to think so. I've played against both teams and Gryffindor is really, really good," she says this somewhat begrudgingly. "But Slytherin plays dirty, when they can. Not all of them, not Black for a start. Sirius is a dirtier player than Black." The distinction between their names makes Lily snort. "But Wilkes will, and Avery will. So as long as Gryffindor's ready for that, they'll be fine."

"They will be," Lily wants to give James the benefit of the doubt. He, of all people, would assume that Slytherin would bend the rules, seeing as he spends so much of his time bending the rules to get back at them.

"Aaaand there's the Snitch. GAME ON! And Weasley with the Quaffle, amazingly fast on a broom is Bilius Weasley. I will argue that the Gryffindor Chasers are the strongest trio this school has seen in quite some time, Weasley passes to MacDonald, nicely dodges that Bludger there, now it's over to Potter who's, yup, he's going for the point. NO YOU'RE TOO SLOW, GRYFFINDOR SCORES! A MINUTE IN AND TEN ZERO GRYFFINDOR!" Fenwick bellows, and the game begins in earnest.

Lily's never been a keen follower of Quidditch; she enjoys the idea of it simply because it is so different from any sport Muggles ever play. She doesn't really understand the frenzy that her friends whip themselves up into over it. But this match is undeniably one of the fastest, and most brutal, she has ever watched. The intense rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin seems to have driven its players into a fury, especially because it becomes obvious that the Gryffindor team, particularly the Chasers, are outflying Slytherin by a mile. James goes to score again and is nearly knocked off his broom by a well-hit Bludger from the Slytherin beater Mulciber. He swerves and curses, but drops the Quaffle, which is recovered by Lucinda Talkalot, the Slytherin Chaser.

"Slytherin's team is strong too, of course, and headed by a new Quidditch captain this year—great success, getting her team to the final her first year on the job! Talkalot following in the footsteps of her very successful older brother Stephen—he, of course, led the team to win the cup six years ago. OH SHE'S INTERCEPTED! Very nice Bludger work by Shacklebolt there." Lily cheers, because she's always liked Kingsley. "Potter with the Quaffle again, passes to MacDonald, to Weasley, back to Potter—and—and—OH, BLOCKED! And the Quaffle is recovered by Rosier…"

Rosier goes on to score, faking out McGonagall (no relation, as far as Lily knows, to Professor McGonagall). Slytherin's scoring seems to kick Gryffindor into gear; Mary catches the Quaffle and flies straight across the field, dodging both Beaters. Sirius aids her by sending a neatly aimed Bludger right into the middle of the Slytherin Chasers on her tail, who scatter. For the first time since the match starts, Remus cheers. Mary scores, and flies in a victory lap, pumping her fists in the air. Lily and Alice leap from their seats and Peter shakes his sign furiously in the air.

Gryffindor scores twice more, making the score forty-ten. The Slytherin keeper, who is a large, hulking brute that Lily doesn't know, looks like a cumbersome bear on a broomstick next to James and Bilius Weasley, who practically dance through the air. Weasley recovers the Quaffle again; even from this distance, Lily sees he's grinning. He streaks towards the goalpost, a blur of red hair and gold uniform.

"Aaaaaand there's Weasley, this looks promising," Fenwick bellows into the microphone, "OH THAT WAS DIRTY!" Three sharp blows to the whistle; Madame Hooch has called a foul.

Mulciber, getting desperate to stop Weasley's inevitable score, had aimed a Bludger right at him; it had collided with the back of his head, which had collided with the handle of his broomstick. He lands somewhat woozily on the ground, blood streaming down his face. James lands next to him, and so does Mulciber and Talkalot, and James is yelling and gesticulating wildly with his hands. Madame Hooch blows her whistle again.

"PENALTY TO GRYFFINDOR! Potter to take the shot!" James makes it easily, viciously, making the score fifty-ten. Weasley is back on his broom, but flying a little unsteadily. But Gryffindor's pulled far enough ahead that all they need to do now is stop Slytherin from scoring again, and hope Frank catches the Snitch.

Frank has been circling the pitch, high above the rest of the players, keeping out of the way until the team pulls enough points to give them the required 40-point lead. James's penalty shot flies through the middle goalpost, and Frank immediately moves closer to the action, dropping 10 feet, Regulus Black quick on his heels. He seems to be waiting for Frank to make a move, rather than watching for the Snitch himself.

"Black's a good Seeker," Alice whispers in Lily's ear. "He's fast. Frank has to be careful."

Frank seems to realize Black's strategy; he rockets skyward again, then dives. Black follows him frantically and Frank pulls up sharply as Black flies sideways into the stands, wheeling around to track him down again. Frank starts circling again, eyes obviously peeled for the Snitch.

Meanwhile, Mary has been in possession of the Quaffle, but wasn't able to score. Weasley recovers it, but is flying more slowly and unsteadily; Lily suspects he probably has a concussion. Talkalot easily recovers the Quaffle from him and begins to fly, uninterrupted, towards the Gryffindor goalposts. Kingsley and Sirius have been keeping an eye on Frank and Mary is halfway across the field with Weasley; James streaks after Talkalot, but can't seem to get fast enough. A Bludger, aimed by Kingsley, pelts in her direction but seems miles off. Amelia, in the seat next to Lily, is screaming frantically and Peter is bellowing something indistinguishable. Lily is holding her breath.

All of a sudden, James pulls his broom up about five feet and stops moving ("WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING PRONGS?" yells Peter). What happens next happens so fast that Lily almost misses it; she happens to be looking upward, scanning for the second Bludger (which is being held in control by Kingsley, high above the crowd) when it happens.

Sirius, Beater bat in hand, throws one leg over his broom and drops. Lily shrieks, Dorcas nearly falls out of her seat. Sirius plummets straight down, Quidditch robes and long dark hair fluttering wildly over his head. The entire stadium is on its feet, screaming. And then Sirius catches himself with one hand on James's broom (James immediately wraps both his hands around Sirius's elbow) and with the other thwacks the Bludger, which Kingsley sent his way, at Talkalot. It smashes into the Quaffle in her hands, which she drops.

The crowd explodes. James and Sirius, both squashed onto one broomstick, wave and high five and Sirius leaps elegantly off James's broomstick back to his own, which has flown down next to them. Madame Hooch seems to be in too much shock to call a penalty.

Play resumes pretty quickly, and brutally. Rosier seizes the back of Mary's broom and tries to yank her off of it; they're rewarded another penalty, which Mary takes and gets. Not soon after, Slytherin gets a penalty shot when Sirius viciously elbows Rosier in the ribs.

And then all of a sudden, Lily sees it; a flash of gold near the bottom of the Slytherin goalpost. Frank apparently sees it too. He dives, dodging around a collection of Chasers and Kingsley. But Regulus Black is following closely after him, drawing level. He's smaller than Frank, lighter on his broom. The whole school is silent, holding his breath, as the two Seekers race neck-and-neck, colliding into each other, struggling to get ahead.

And then suddenly Sirius is flying, seemingly out of nowhere, diving straight at his brother. Regulus pulls up and Sirius misses him by inches, wheeling back into the air, both arms outstretched over his head. Lily can hear Regulus's cursing from here, and the Slytherins are screaming in outrage but it doesn't matter because Frank's fingers close over the tiny golden Snitch.

Dorcas hurtles herself across two seats to throw her arms around Lily, and she collides backwards with Remus and Peter and they all leap up and down, arms entangled with each other. The Gryffindor Quidditch team has collided in midair, a huge, many-armed shouting mass of red and gold. They land, and the crowd rushes forward into the field; Lily is borne with them. Dorcas drags her forward as James is lifted onto the shoulders of the crowd. He is carried towards Dumbledore, who passes him the huge, shining Inter House Cup, and he vanishes under a wave of red-clad arms and hands hugging him.

Lily struggles past Frank and Alice, who are snogging so ferociously Lily is surprised Alice's face isn't coming right off, Weasley, who is grinning maniacally around the blood smeared across his face, Rosier, who is swearing in a steady stream, and McGonagall, who is mopping her eyes on a huge Gryffindor flag. Mary hurtles towards them out of the crowd, flinging her arms around Lily's neck and screaming incoherently into her hair. They collide with Peter, Sirius, Remus and James, who are tangled together in a huge mass. James, still clutching the Cup, is sobbing incoherently. Sirius, grinning like a wild dog, shouts at Remus; Lily hears his words very clearly.

"I can always tell when you actually come to our matches!"

"Why's that," Remus's mouth is wry.

"You cheer at the wrong moments," Sirius throws back his head and laughs.

"We're throwing a party!" Peter is shouting over the din. "Party in the Gryffindor common room! Starts in an hour, goes until they shut us up!"

As the crowd begins to disperse, Lily looks over at Dorcas and sighs.

"You know they're never going to shut up about this, ever, ever again," she says.

Dorcas just laughs.


	7. Chapter 7- Saturday

Chapter 7: Saturday

Lily's absolutely right; James and Sirius reenact the broom jumping incident for anyone who will ask, and many people do. They are inordinately pleased with themselves, and Lily finds it hard to fault them, even though it gets old after a couple of days. The weather is placating her, they threw a magnificent party that evening that didn't end until McGonagall stomped into the common room around 3 AM and yelled at them all to shut up, they all staggered to class the next morning very hungover (even Lily, who usually didn't drink the firewhiskey she knew James and Sirius knicked from somewhere) and they've won the Cup. It is hard to feel truly upset about anything.

They have a Hogsmede trip that Saturday, a warm, slightly overcast morning perfect for sipping a butterbeer outside the Three Broomsticks. Lily walks to the village with Mary, Dorcas and Amelia; Alice is going with Frank, and Jiejong was asked by a boy in Ravenclaw. Their impending exams are looming, with Arithmancy and Astronomy on Monday, so Lily is determined to have a long, relaxing afternoon before she studies again.

"I studied for five hours for Arithmancy yesterday," Amelia says, stepping around some mud in her sensible black shoes. "And I'll probably do three tonight and maybe five or six tomorrow…"

"Amelia," Mary says lazily, "would you please shut up?"

Amelia frown at her but complies.

"It's hard to believe though, isn't it?" Dorcas twists a loose strand of hair back into her plait. "This set of exams and then it's our final year in school. It went so fast."

"If we pass," Amelia says.

"We'll pass," Lily says cheerfully.

"You won't if you don't study."

"Oh, come off it for today, will you? We'll study tomorrow. Let's go get a butterbeer and then look at the shops. You can pick up a new quill for the Arithmancy exam."

Mollified, Amelia follows them into the Three Broomsticks, which is packed. They wave at Frank and Alice, who are sitting at a small corner table, and Lily purposefully skirts around a group of Slytherins that contains both Regulus Black and Severus. They all turn and glare at Mary, resentment left over from their Quidditch loss. In trying to avoid their group, they are maneuvered directly into a round table which contains James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and a large pile of parchment. Mary accidentally bumps the table with her hip, sending a pile of papers tumbling towards Peter's lap. He grabs at them, and then makes a great show of flipping them upside down so they can't be read.

"Don't tell me you lot are actually studying," Amelia says, a note of panic creeping back into her voice.

"No, we wouldn't dare," Sirius is dressed in Muggle clothes and looks like he hopped off the cover of a rock album. Anybody else would look ridiculous. Lily isn't going to give him the benefit of saying he looks cool, but he certainly doesn't look stupid.

James, also dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, has for some reason leapt to his feet, probably as a ploy to distract them from whatever the pile of parchment contains; the specifics of their newest prank, probably. The action is not graceful and he barely manages to catch his chair from crashing backwards to the floor; he fumbles and sets it flat, then tugs a hand through his hair.

"Evans," he says and Lily sighs. "You look lovely today."

"Potter," Lily responds. "You look like you're up to something."

"Not particularly, no," James leans one hand on the table and places the other on his hip. He smiles. "You do look like you could use a Butterbeer, though, and I would be willing to get you one if you want."

Behind him, a slow smile is spreading across Sirius's face and he gets quietly to his feet. Lily can see Remus roll his eyes and also stifle his laughter with one hand. Copying James's nonchalant pose, Sirius starts pawing his hands through his hair.

"No thanks," Lily manages to keep her laughter out of her voice. Next to her, Mary is fighting very hard to keep a straight face. "I'd rather get one myself."

"You sure?" James leans towards her, ruffling his hair again. "You can sit with me too, we've got room." Sirius flexes his arm muscles and pouts his lips, and continues to ruffle his hair so it is standing on end. Dorcas has turned her back on them and is silently laughing into her hands.

"It's alright," Lily's voice quivers just a little. "I'd like to sit with my friends."

"We've got room for them too," James shrugs. Behind him, his hands still in his hair, Sirius begins to gyrate his hips, the expression on his face smouldering. And Lily can't hold it in anymore; she bursts out laughing.

James whirls around and sees Sirius, hair askew and hips gyrating wildly, and his face goes a dangerous shade of maroon.

"GET STUFFED BLACK!" He shouts.

"Ooh, Evans, Evans," Sirius strikes a ridiculous pose. "Seeing you in that skirt is really yanking my chain, Evans!"

"I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU," James bellows, and launches himself in Sirius's direction. The chair he was leaning against topples, and they both crash to the floor.

"Shouldn't you, er, stop them?" Dorcas says hesitantly, watching Sirius and James grapple around angrily on the floor. The busy room has cleared to make space for them. At the bar, Madame Rosmerta rolls her eyes and turns around.

"Not worth the effort," Peter's attention has returned to his butterbeer, which he drains. "They're always like that. If you get in the middle, they just drag you into it."

"Sorry about that," Remus grins sheepishly.

"Oh, it's okay," Lily smiles. "He didn't really even get a fair chance, poor guy."

"He should stop doing that in front of Sirius," Peter agrees. "You all having a nice day?"

"Very," Lily says.

"I want another butterbeer," Sirius says, surfacing from the floor. "Moony? Wormy?"

Peter hands Sirius a sickle, and Remus digs around in his pocket for a minute before producing one. When he offers it, Sirius frowns. "I've got them, don't worry about it."

"Don't be daft. You're a disinherited prince. You can't afford to buy everyone drinks."

"I've got money. I've got 5 galleons. I won them off of Kingsley. He bet me I couldn't make that shot during the match, and I did."

Remus shoves the coin at Sirius, who takes it and moves away towards the bar. Lily sees him slip one of the sickles into Remus's bag, which is hanging over his chair. Nobody else sees.

"Well, we are going to get butterbeers and then do a bit of shopping," Mary says, grabbing at Lily's arm. "Have a nice day, you lot!"

"You too," Peter says. "And stay away from the Slytherin table at dinner tonight, just a word of advice."

"Oh, don't you worry," Lily says sarcastically.

They drink their butterbeer and wander into the bookshop and then into Gladrags Wizardwear, where Dorcas finds a pair of earrings that are charmed to compliment the wearer's hair. Lily picks up a scarf she thinks Petunia might like, and resolves not to tell her it's from a wizard shop. They stop into Dervish & Banges so Amelia can pick up her scales, which she had sent to be repaired last week, and then have biscuits and coffee in Madame Puddifoot[']s. It's almost 3 when they decide to head back to the castle. They end up walking behind the group of fifth, sixth and seventh year Slytherins from the Three Broomsticks, comprised mostly of people Lily hates. Mary's lips tighten when Avery happens to turn around them and notice them.

"Look who it is," he sneers. He's got a thin, bony face, built for sneering.

"The most useless member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and her Mudblood friends," Mulciber interjects. There's a great deal of sniggering.

Mary's lips tighten even further, and Dorcas grabs her arm and hisses, "Just ignore him, come on."

It doesn't work. "At least I don't resort to bludgeoning people in the back of the head to win. I don't have to."

"Oh, you mean Weasley? Nobody even noticed the difference," Avery laughs and pulls a face, pulling at his ears and sticking his tongue out. It's obviously meant to be an impression of Bilius Weasley, and apparently it's hilarious.

"I've never noticed you flying in a straight line," Mary retorts, "and nobody hit you with a Bludger. Guess it just comes naturally to pureblood wizards. Inbreeding, or something."

"She doesn't know what she's saying," Severus says quietly from behind Avery. They ignore him.

"We're no better than the company we keep, MacDonald," Mulciber's eyes move past Amelia to Dorcas, and then settle on Lily. "But a blood traitor like you wouldn't even notice the difference, would you?"

"Come on," Lily tugs at Mary, who shakes her off. "They're just bitter because they lost."

"At least nobody on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way on," Mary snarls. "We beat you. Get that through your thick brain. We beat you because we're good."

"Not that good," Regulus Black snaps. "Sirius cheated, and you know it."

"Or guts just aren't hereditary," Mary laughs, and Regulus flushes.

"Come on, Mary," Amelia's voice is a little panicked.

"Listen to your friend, MacDonald," Mulciber is easily twice Mary's size, with huge shoulders. But Mary's fearless, and a very fast dueler. "You're making me angry."

"I'm quaking in my shoes," Mary rolls her eyes.

"You're outnumbered, and your gallant hero friends aren't here to keep an eye on you," Rosier, who would be handsome if he weren't so horrible, snips.

"Saint Potter," Severus sneers.

"Saint Potter's worth ten of you, and he's a twat," Mary retorts.

Mulciber goes for his wand and Mary does, too which means that Avery and Amelia and Rosier and Dorcas also have theirs out a second later.

"Knock it off!" Lily shouts, shoving her way into the middle of it. "Mary, Mulciber, put them away. Now."

"Make me," Mulciber turns his wand towards her. Mary's inches closer to his face.

"I don't have to, I can just call Dumbledore," Lily says. "Or have you forgotten that one of us is a Prefect? Put it away."

"Don't be an idiot, Mulciber," Severus says.

He does, after a long moment and everyone else does too. They turn and start wandering up the path towards the Shrieking Shack, but Mulciber shouts, "Watch your back, MacDonald!"

"You don't scare me, you fuck!" Mary bellows back.

Severus lingers for a moment, catching Lily's eye. They haven't spoken properly since last May; she saw him hanging around near her house a couple times over the summer, and ignored him. Lily's not really interested in bridging that gap right now.

"What?"

"You really shouldn't have done that," he says quietly. "You're going to get yourselves into trouble."

"Get the fuck out of my way, Snape," Mary whirls around and heads off towards the castle, Dorcas and Amelia following.

"I can take care of myself, and so can she," Lily says, crossing her arms.

"I know," Severus frowns. "She just picked the wrong person to get into a fight with."

"Let me worry about my friends," Lily says. "You worry about yours." And she turns to follow Mary, Dorcas and Amelia back to the castle. She thinks that maybe she should have mentioned to Severus about staying away from the Slytherin table around dinnertime, then decides after that spectacle they all deserve what's coming to them.

Lily manages not to feel at all guilty when every dish on the Slytherin table explodes halfway through dinner, splattering its inhabitants with meat pie and gravy. There's a great deal of shouting and McGonagall leaps out of her seat and everyone looks for James and Sirius, who are looking around with expressions of surprised innocence. Nobody is fooled.

Later that night as they're getting into bed, Mary is still recounting the details of the exploding food with delight. "And did you see Mulciber's face when his potato burst all over it? It was incredible. I ought to thank them for that. James and Sirius, I mean."

"I notice you didn't report them, Lily," Dorcas says slyly.

"I'm sure they'll get what's coming to them in another way," Lily shrugs. "Another other day I might have. I know that makes me a terrible Prefect, but Mulciber and Avery did call me a Mudblood."

"Creepy fucks," Mary agrees.

"I really want to know if they all call Potter _Saint Potter _behind his back," Lily muses, climbing into bed. "And why on earth they thought that would get a rise out of us. Honestly."

"They probably know you are annoyed by him?" Dorcas says.

"I guess," Lily continues. "But I don't know why they thought to bring it up, or bring them up."

"Lily," Mary says from across the room. "You heard that whole argument, and you choose to be annoyed by the fact that Avery brought up Potter's name?"

"No," Lily frowns. "It was just weird, that's all."

"Alright," Mary and Dorcas exchange a look that Lily can't read.

"What was that?" she snaps. "That look. What was it?"

"Lily—" Dorcas starts, then seems to change her mind. "Nothing. It was nothing. Go to sleep."

"Dorcas!" Lily shouts, but both Dorcas and Mary grin at each other and turn off their lights. Lily gives up.


	8. Chapter 8- Tuesday

Chapter 8: Tuesday

Tonight is the night, Lily thinks, as she sits herself in front of the fire in the common room Tuesday night after dinner. It's the second day of exams; they've completed Arithmancy and Astronomy (late Monday night), and Defense Against the Dark Arts today. And when Lily was passing Peter, Sirius, James and Remus leaving the lunch table, she had clearly overheard an intriguing snippet of conversation.

"I've been given permission to take the History of Magic exam on Thursday. Dumbledore's organized it," Remus was saying.

"Wish I could get permission to take it later," Peter had said. "We're all going to be exhausted, come tomorrow morning."

"Don't bloody remind me," Sirius had groaned. "The worst one to have to take after an hour of sleep, too."

"You don't have to come," Remus had started to say, but James had cut him off.

"Nonsense, of course we do. History of Magic's a piece of cake anyway. You better commit, Padfoot, unless you think it'll take time away from your snogging!"

"I think I can do both," Sirius had laughed.

They're planning something, and Sirius's girl is somehow involved. If he isn't sneaking off to see the girl in secret, the least Lily can do is catch them in the middle of a prank and give them detention. She isn't exactly sure how Remus is involved or what his comments mean, but he had left before dinner, announcing that he had to go visit his mother.

So she stays in the common room longer than she usually does and watches as it clears out. She shoos Dorcas up the stairs early and Mary is off with a group of people playing Quidditch. Lily halfheartedly reviews Potions notes, and waits.

Around nine, Lily is beginning to yawn and the room is mostly empty. She contemplates giving up when Peter comes into the common room alone and crosses to the portrait hole, whistling to himself. Lily frowns and thinks about getting up to follow him out when she notices what looks like the hem of a cloak floating along behind him in midair. He holds the portrait open slightly longer than necessary and she's sure; Black and Potter are underneath Potter's invisibility cloak and they're all sneaking out of the castle.

Lily gives them a solid minute before she stands and slips out of the portrait hole. She creeps along the hallway in the dark, trying to move as quietly as possible. As a result, her progress is slow. She loses sight of Peter after a while, and curses to herself before deciding that they're probably heading outside, considering that the night is warm and the moon is rising full and beautiful above the castle. She understands the temptation. So she heads towards the Great Hall, nearly getting stopped by Peeves and feeling very pleased with herself when she ducks into an empty classroom to avoid him. At the last minute, Lily doubles back, deciding that the three boys definitely weren't sneaking out of the Great Hall; she heads towards a side entrance out of the castle, the one out of the Long Gallery.

_All this sneaking around isn't so hard,_ Lily thinks. _Invisibility cloak or no invisibility cloak. _

She makes it to the doors, which are closed but unlocked, and slips down the steps and across the lawn. The moon is enormous and yellow and bright; it illuminates the sweep of grass in pale, luminous light. Every shadow is picked out in clear detail. Lily doesn't see any of the three boys, but she creeps down the steps and around the greenhouses, towards the Quidditch sheds, the Whomping Willow and the forest.

She's rounding the furthest shed and beginning to wonder if they haven't left the castle after all when she hears it; a series of barks, like a dog, and a low, vicious growling. It's coming from the direction of the Whomping Willow, which doesn't make any sense because the tree is vicious and nobody's been allowed to go near it since Davey Gudgeon almost lost an eye two years ago. The limbs of the tree are unusually still, though. Lily takes a few more steps away from the shed and towards the tree when something barrels into her line of vision, seizes her around the shoulders and drags her bodily backwards.

Lily shrieks and lashes out with her fists, which make contact with somebody's face. Hands are trying to get a hold of her wrists, so she knees whoever it is viciously in the stomach a few times. She manages to throw her attacker off with another kick to the shins and is scrabbling for her wand and preparing to make a break for it when she realizes the person hopping up and down in pain and rage is all too familiar to her.

James Potter is clutching his shin and letting off a string of unintelligible curse words that eventually dissolve into a "Bloody hell, Evans!"

He swears very loudly again and grabs both her wrists in his hands; his fingers are callused and very strong, undoubtedly from Quidditch.

"What on earth are you doing here?" he spits, his face inches from hers. His eyebrows are drawn down and his eyes are furious. Real anger, Lily realizes. But she's angry too.

"What am I—what are _you_ doing out here? Let go of me!" She yanks her wrists back.

"This is a really bad time for you to decide to be nosy," James growls.

"Nosy!" Lily's furious now. "Let me remind you, Potter, that you're the one breaking out of the school in the middle of the night and I am a Prefect and—"

There is another series of low, rumbling growls and snarls from around the other side of the shed. "Usually I'd be rejoicing that you're saying more than three words to me," James hisses, grabbing at her hand again and pulling her away from the lawn, "but really, really shut up right now."

Lily's stomach starts to sink. They've done something, got themselves into some kind of very bad trouble. She's never seen James Potter look so worried, or so serious. "What on earth are you doing? Why aren't you wearing any trousers?"

James is in his pants and glasses and nothing else. His pants are covered in gold Snitches. He is, Lily has to admit, very fit, in a lanky, string bean-y kind of way. His jaw is set very tight. "Nice night," he says shortly. "And what I'm doing is none of your business. You have to get back to the castle as fast as you can, I mean it."

"Not until you tell me what you're doing," Lily says stubbornly. James glances distractedly over his shoulder and pulls her further around the shed, towards the castle. She shakes free of his grip again.

"Now is a really bad time," he snaps. "Where the fuck did Padfoot go…"

"Black is out here too?" Lily yells, and James whirls on her and clamps his hand over her mouth.

"Lily," he hisses. He hardly ever calls her by her first name. "Seriously. Shut up." Lily bites him in the hand and he swears, hopping backwards on bare feet.

"Fucking fuck—Sirius. SIRIUS! Oh for Merlin's… there you are."

A dark shape is sprinting towards them away from the tree. It's a dog, an enormous shaggy black dog with shining dark eyes. It runs up to them and sniffs and stops and cocks its head in a very un-doglike movement.

"Look, I didn't bring her out here to show off, okay?" The dog whines. "I know, shut up you berk." Lily looks at him in confusion. "We're fucked if we don't do something right now. Is he done? Is he on his way out?"

"Yeah," Sirius Black is standing where the dog was moments before. He is wearing a dog collar around his neck—in the moonlight, Lily can read that it says "Padfoot." Other than that, he is absolutely naked.

Lily shrieks and throws her hands over her eyes.

"Oh shut it, Evans, I know your night just got a whole lot better so don't complain," Sirius says unselfconsciously. "And yes, he's out. He's… there, you see him? Was heading towards the forest, but he could follow me this way."

"And of course you aren't wearing any pants," James's voice sounds resigned.

"WHY ARE YOU BOTH OUT IN THE WOODS WITHOUT CLOTHES," Lily yells, hands still clamped over her face. Sirius Black is admittedly very fit and has very nice shoulders, but the sight of his naked thighs, one of which looks like it might have a tattoo of a lion on it, is too much for her to deal with right now.

"Told you, long story." James replies. "Where's Pete?"

"Pettigrew's here too?" Lily feels like she may be going mad. "Is he wearing clothes?"

"None that you'd recognize," Sirius chuckles. "He's back by the tree, but he's not any help."

"Then will one of you tell me what is going on?" Lily says again.

"Later, okay? You've got to head him off, Pads," James says. "I'll get Lily back into the castle. Get him into the forest, I don't care how. Just do not let him come this way."

"Too late," Sirius shrinks back a couple of steps; he seems to be sniffing the air. "He's not close, but he will be in a minute."

"Then go!" James shoves his shoulder, and all of a sudden Sirius is gone and the big black dog is back. It bounds away from the sheds and across the grass.

"He's an Animagus?"Lily drops her hands from her eyes. "Do you know how illegal that is?"

"Yes, I'm aware," James hisses.

"You can still wear clothes, if you're an Animagus," Lily feels the need to point out. She fears her retinas might be permanently damaged.

"Try telling him that. Now hush."

There is another shape, shaggier and stocky and huge, moving across the grass. The dog runs up to it, and there are snarls and barks and a long, lonely howl.

"Is that a wolf?" Lily manages.

"Sort of."

"Sort of?" Something is dawning on her, very slowly. It's the moon, so bright and dominating the sky, and James's tight jaw and the real fear in his eyes. "What have you done?" she whispers. James shakes his head.

"I haven't done anything. I'll explain later, Lily I promise. Get down." James crouches behind the shed and Lily crouches behind him, puts one hand on his back to balance herself. His skin is chilly and he's broken out in goose pimples.

"I'm going to murder you," Lily mutters.

"It's not you I'm worried about right now."

"Can't we sneak back under your invisibility cloak?" She whispers in his ear.

"It's a wolf, Evans," he says. "He'll smell you. And anyway, don't have it on me."

"You did."

"Well, I don't anymore. Where would it be, down my pants?"

They sit, motionless, for another few long moments; it's probably only five but it feels like an age. Lily's calves are cramping. And then something rustles in the grass next to Lily's right foot; it's so quiet that it sounds thunderous. Lily, scared nearly out of her skin, shrieks and topples over. It's a rat, a large, glossy brown garden rat.

"What now? Are they in the forest?" James says to it. And all of a sudden the rat is growing, changing, expanding—and Peter Pettigrew, mercifully fully clothed, is crouching next to them.

"Not you too," Lily groans.

"James," Peter's a little out of breath and his eyes are wide and panicked. "Something's wrong. There's someone in the forest. What the hell are you doing here, Evans?"

"Why is it that you three are allowed to sneak around at night all you want, and as soon as I do it you question me?" Lily hisses. Peter's eyebrows shoot up, but he turns back to James.

"What do you mean, someone's in the forest?"

"A person. I thought it was a body at first, but they're alive. It was a little hard to tell from my vantage point," Peter lowers one hand towards the ground, "but it's a girl, she's blonde and she's wearing Gryffindor colors."

"Oh my God—"Lily says.

"Did—did he—" James seems to be strangling on his words.

"No, not him. I think she's been hexed. Prongs, it looks bad. We have to get her out of there before—"

"Mary wasn't in the castle when I left," Lily blurts out. "She was out here, playing Quidditch with someone."

"Merlin's hairy ballsack," Peter says.


	9. Chapter 9- still Tuesday

"She's my friend, Potter!"

"Evans, I don't care, you have to go back to the castle!" James shouts.

"I am not abandoning her with you three!" Lily bellows back.

"I'll take care of her, I promise, just it isn't safe. I can't help her and protect you too and you're going to get yourself killed—or worse—"

"Who says I need protecting?" Lily spits.

"The great bloody wolf in the woods does," James roars back. "Back me up here, Wormtail, come on!"

"Prongs, we're wasting time," Peter says shortly. "We have to get to her before he does."

"Who is _he_?" Lily shouts.

"Nobody!" James and Peter yell this at the same time. James runs his hands through his hair, looking quite berserk.

"Fine, you know what? Fine. Just don't you expect me to wait for you." He throws up his hands and begins jogging across the lawn in his bare feet. Lily grips her wand and follows, Peter at her heels.

The forest is dark and cool; the bright pale moonlight wavers and distorts the patterns of dancing trees. James, apparently unbothered by the fact that he's jogging through leaves and twigs in his bare feet, plunges on ahead.

"Where was she, Wormtail?" He calls. "Damn, where is Sirius when you need him…"

They hear another long, hollow howl that echoes through the trees. It's hard to tell how far away it is. Lily's blood feels icy in her veins. Peter's shape next to her is twisting and shrinking and changing again, and the rat races across the moonlit path through the trees. For someone with bad eyesight, James seems to follow it very easily. It dashes back and forth from tree to tree, from patch of moonlight to patch of moonlight, almost faster than Lily's eyes can follow.

They jog for another five minutes maybe, not much longer than that, then Peter is Peter again. "She was near here," he says, glancing around. "There! Over there!"

Mary MacDonald is lying facedown in the leaves, her hair spilling out over her face. James and Lily race towards her, and Peter kneels down next to her, putting one hand against her neck.

"She's got a pulse," he says.

"Mary?" Lily says cautiously. No response. "I think she's been Petrified," Lily hisses. "Come on, help me roll her over."

Together they roll Mary's stiff figure over, and he's right. Her eyes are moving frantically back and forth.

"_Finite Incantatem_," Lily gestures with her wand, feeling sick to her stomach, and Mary's body relaxes. She struggles to sit up and doesn't seem to be able to. Lily grabs her around the shoulders; Mary's whole body is shivering and she's taking huge, shuddering breaths.

"Mary," James kneels in the leaves next to them. "What happened? Who hexed you?" His voice is gentler than Lily has ever heard it.

"I don't know," Mary gasps. She isn't crying, but her voice is faint and scared. It's unlike her. She laughs loud, she talks loud and she fights loud. She once got knocked off her broom in a Quidditch match and shattered her right wrist when she hit the ground, but got up and punched Dirk Cresswell, who had collided with her, in the face with her left before passing out. So, Lily thinks in horror, what happened to her? "He hurt me, Lily, he cursed me."

"Who?" Lily says. "Mary, please?"

Mary manages to meet her eyes. Her face is deathly pale and her eyes are red-rimmed. "I think it was Mulciber," she whispers, and then she faints heavily onto Lily's shoulder.

Lily looks up to meet James's eyes, and then Peter's, red-hot fury rising in her chest. They've both gone very pale and a muscle is twitching in Peter's neck.

"He's evil," Lily grates out. "Evil."

James's voice sounding strangled. "Sirius guessed Mulciber and Avery've have been taught to use Unforgivable Curses. Guess he was right."

"We have to get her to Madame Pomfrey," Lily says.

"We have to get her, and ourselves, out of here," Peter says very sharply. "Now."

"This is sick," Lily manages. James nods, his right hand moving towards her shoulder like he means to comfort her.

"James, really," Peter shouts. "We gotta go!"

"Right," James stands and lifts Mary out of Lily's arms. She had forgotten about Sirius and the wolf in the forest; suddenly, she's painfully aware that there's a great deal of growling and barking and snapping and it sounds quite close. The big black dog dashes suddenly into the clearing, elongating into Sirius Black midstride.

"I thought I smelled—what the fuck are you doing, Prongs? I thought you were going to take her back to the castle? Is that MacDonald?"

"Yeah," Peter says. "She was hexed."

"Well for Merlin's sake, GO!" Sirius yells. "We got distracted chasing some centaurs but we caught on to your scent and I assumed it was fine—he's coming right this way!" And he runs back in the other direction, dropping to all fours and growing fur as he does so. He's back a moment later, snapping at the heels of the wolf.

Lily gets what James meant when he said it was "sort of" a wolf. It has most of the requirements; four legs, bristling brown-black fur, bushy tail. But its snout is too long, its shoulders too broad. It has luminous golden eyes, gleaming teeth the size of steak knives and flashing silver claws. It rises up onto its hind legs like a man and howls, then drops to all fours and charges towards the dog, which is taller than it but much less stocky. They wrestle ferociously; it almost seems playful, but the dog is obviously trying to hold the wolf back from getting any closer, teeth flashing in the moonlight. The dog sinks its teeth into the thick fur around the wolf's neck, and it roars, thrashing. It throws the dog off and fixes its huge, golden eyes on them. They're sickeningly human, and they look familiar.

And suddenly James springs into action; without asking, he passes Mary's unconscious body to Peter, who nods and catches Lily's eye. She raises her wand and they take a few slow steps backwards, in the direction of the castle.

"Get ready to run," James whispers. "Really run, Evans." She nods. "Pete, get them both back inside. We'll catch up to you." And he turns and breaks into a run, right at the wolf.

"POTTER WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Lily screams, as the wolf surges forward, claws and huge, powerful muscles, but James is changing, too. His legs are stretching, and so is his neck, and fine brown hair is growing out of his back, and two sets of antlers erupt from his forehead.

And Lily thinks, _Prongs._

The stag charges into the wolf antlers first, knocking it several feet back and onto its side. Lily doesn't stay to watch anymore; she breaks into a run, zig zagging in between trees towards the open lawn and the castle. She stops once to turn and look for Peter, who is slowed down by Mary, but steady. They make it to the back entrance together and Lily stops, lungs burning. Peter stops next to her a moment later, his face pink and his chest heaving. He pushes the front door of the castle open with his foot and maneuvers inside, setting Mary down on the cold stone floor. Lily illuminates her wand and is about to head towards the Hospital Wing when Peter grabs her hand. He glances along the wall at some of the portraits, and then whispers, "George!"

A portrait of a pointy-bearded ginger wizard, wearing a black hat and a magnificent ruff, jerked awake with a bit of a snort.

"Eh? Eh? Who's there?"

"Down here!" Peter hisses. "It's Pettigrew!"

"Oh of course, my fellow Saturn lover, there you are!" The portrait, George, has a very strong German accent. He leans forward to peer down at them. "What on earth have you got there, boy? Running around in the middle of the night with a couple of girls, what are you up to, eh?"

"George, there's been a bit of trouble," Peter says. "It's bad, not just mischief. Can you go get Professor Dumbledore, please, and also Madame Pomfrey if you can find her? But the Headmaster first?"

"What's this trouble, then?" The portrait asks.

"My friend's been attacked!" Lily bursts out. "It's really serious, please!"

"You're the Gryffindor Prefect girl, am I right?"

"George, this is Lily Evans. She's the Gryffindor prefect along with Remus. She positively loves Saturn. Lily, this is George van Rheticus—he was a 16th century wizard astronomer, did groundbreaking research." George sweeps off his hat and bows towards Lily. "Please, George, find Dumbledore and tell him Mary MacDonald's been attacked."

"Alright boy, but if this is one of your pranks I'll force both of you to fill in a star chart, you hear!" And he vanishes, appearing in a portrait high above their heads, and then one closer to the Long Gallery.

"Bit of a nutter," Peter whispers, "but he's dead useful. Always willing to cover up for us in a pinch, as long as you show an appropriate interest in Astronomy. If he thinks you're a scoundrel, he tests you on planetary movements."

"Right," Lily shrugs. She kneels down next to Mary, whose eyelids are fluttering erratically beneath her lids. She is distracted a few minutes later by heated shouting from outside; Peter sighs and rolls his eyes.

"I'll stay, go on and break them up or they'll go at it all night," he says, sitting down next to Mary and supporting her head with his hands.

James and Sirius are standing on the front landing bellowing at each other.

"I know!" James has his hands on his hips, and blood is dripping onto his glasses from a nasty gash on his forehead. His feet are covered in mud, and he has sticks and twigs in his hair. "Look, I know that but this is just a little bit of an emergency, don't you think?"

"And this isn't?" The tattoo on Sirius's thigh is definitely a lion, Lily sees now. She averts her eyes to his face, which is murderous, and the cuts on his ribcage, which look like clawmarks.

"Mulciber cursed her, Pads!" James shouts.

"I'm aware of that!" Sirius yells back. "But if I don't head back right now, I'll lose him!"

"He'll chase centaurs all night."

"He could wander into Hogsmede!"

"We can't just leave her, come on. He's cursed her, and who knows what else!"

"Boys," Lily tries to interject, "Peter asked some portrait named George to get Dumbledore…"

"So we've got to stick around until he gets here and we're sure she's alright!" James stabs his finger in Sirius's direction. "We've got to!"

"I don't have any pants on!" Sirius bellows.

"Tell him you were shagging someone in one of the greenhouses," James snaps dismissively. "I don't mean to be an arse about it Pads, but this is a little bit more important right now."

"NOT TO ME," Sirius roars, all the veins in his neck standing out. Lily jumps. James's statement, which Lily sees as being pretty reasonable, given the circumstances, seems to have touched a nerve because Sirius takes a few menacing steps forward. "I AM NOT LEAVING HIM, JAMES! We promised him." He takes a step back, breathing hard. "I promised him, and I'm not breaking any more promises to him. Not again." His face is suddenly tired, and vulnerable, and very sad.

James reaches out and puts his hand on Sirius's shoulder and they stare at each other for a minute. Something passes between them that Lily doesn't really understand. People joke that Black and Potter are more brothers than friends, but the description has never seemed more accurate.

"Alright," James says. "Go. I'll find you, once Dumbledore gets here." And Sirius sprints off, changing into a dog as he goes. The three of them turn and slip back into the door and sit next to Mary and Peter, who is looking worried.

"Pads'll track him down," James says tiredly. "Don't worry."

"I'm not," Peter replies. Again this mysterious _him._ Doubts and suspicions and a half-formed theory rattle around in Lily's brain.

"What's he so angry about?" Lily asks quietly.

"It's a long story," James says, for the second time that night.

"Potter," Lily warns.

"Now's still not the time." James dabs at the blood on his forehead. "Fuck. This is… fuck.

"It was only a matter of time before something like this happened," Peter says. "Not for Mary, I mean. But—"

"Shh!" James stands up suddenly and so does Peter, looking towards the Gallery. There are voices coming from that direction, and footsteps. Peter draws his wand out and strides over to the portrait of George and taps it; "_Lunctis viribus,_" he mutters, and the portrait swings inward, showing a dark, shadowy passage.

"Leads up to the Grand Staircase," James says. "Best if we don't get spotted by McGonagall, if you know what I mean."

"How did you even find that?" Lily says, in wonderment and bewilderment and a little bit of annoyance.

"All sorts of things become possible when you can transform into a rat," Peter says, stepping into the hole. Lily stares at them as they swing the portrait closed.

"And months of bloody research," James adds. And then he smiles. "Impressed, Evans?"

"No," Lily says. "Of course not." She pauses. "Thank you," she says. "For helping Mary. And for saving me from, from whatever you were doing out there."

"No problem," James says, and he swings the picture closed as Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall come into the hall.


	10. Chapter 10- Wednesday

Chapter 10: Wednesday

Lily insists on going to the Hospital Wing with Dumbledore and McGonagall, who had levitated Mary's body onto a stretcher and floated her up four flights of stairs.

"I found her in the hallway," Lily makes up on the spot. "I had gotten up, I couldn't sleep. Nervous about exams, I guess. I thought I walk might clear my head—I know I'm not supposed to, Professor, but it's lucky I did because I heard commotion from the end of this hallway and I ran to see what it was, and Mary was lying by herself on the floor, Petrified."

Dumbledore, who is in a long dark blue dressing gown and fluffy purple rabbit slippers, nods at her.

"It's quite alright, Miss Evans," he says. "I appreciate, this time, that you chose to take a midnight walk."

"Did she say anything at all to you?" Professor McGonagall is wearing a tartan dressing gown and a very serious expression. Lily meets her eye.

"She said it was Mulciber, Professor. That was all, then she fainted." McGonagall and Dumbledore exchange a look, but by now they've reached the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey has apparently been warned by the portrait to expect them, because she's bustling about and all the lights are on.

"Come in, come in," she ushers the floating stretcher over to a bed in the empty wing, and she and McGonagall carefully lift Mary onto it. She stirs slightly. Pomfrey takes her pulse, gently lifts one of her eyelids.

"She's in shock," she announces. "And I'm sure she was hexed… you undid the hex, Miss Evans?"

"Yes," Lily is hovering anxiously by the bed.

"Well, she'll live," Madame Pomfrey says. "She'll need to rest for the night. I can give her something for any pain."

"Poppy," Dumbledore says quietly. "Miss MacDonald told Miss Evans she may have been attacked by another student. I am, of course, not sure of the curse, but I have my guesses, as I'm sure you do too."

Madame Pomfrey's eyes are cold. "She shows all the signs of being subjected to the Cruciatus Curse, Albus."

"As I feared," Dumbledore sighs. "Minerva, if you can escort Miss Evans back to the dormitory…"

"No!" Lily shouts, then catches herself. "I have to know if she's going to be alright," she pleads.

"She needs rest!" Madame Pomfrey says sternly. "And so, might I add, do you. You do have an exam in the morning, don't you?"

"Please," Lily says. "She's my friend. Please."

Madame Pomfrey considers her. "You may come back and check on her first thing in the morning, Miss Evans," she says. "I do understand—must have caused you quite the fright, finding her, poor dear. You may come back before breakfast and see if she's awake, if you like."

"Thank you," Lily says.

McGonagall walks her back to the portrait hole and opens it for her, then catches her arm. "Miss MacDonald is very lucky that you stumbled across her," she says sternly. "But do try and avoid any further night wandering, Miss Evans."

"Yes, Professor," Lily says meekly, and climbs through the portrait hole. She drops into her bed almost immediately, and sleeps fretfully for a couple of hours.

Lily wakes around six and changes her clothes, then scribbles a note to Dorcas which she leaves at her bedside table, letting her know what's happened. She slips out of the dorm and then out of the common room and heads back to the Hospital Wing.

Madame Pomfrey is up, and ushers her inside with a wave of her hand.

"She's sleeping," she says. "Peacefully enough. I've done what I can for now. I can do more when I know if anything else has been done to her. I don't think it has, though."

"Thank you," Lily says, and takes a seat next to Mary's bed. She's curled up on herself on her side, looking very small and frail.

"I have to run out," Madame Pomfrey is slinging a cloak over her shoulders. "I'll be back in a few moments, dear."

"You're leaving?" Lily says, startled. "You can't just leave her here!"

Madame Pomfrey gives her a look that clearly says _You're pushing your luck, Evans._ "Sorry," Lily mutters. "I'm just worried, I guess."

"Quite alright," Madame Pomfrey strides towards the door. "I won't be long."

Lily rests her head on Mary's bedsheets and lets her eyes droop closed; she's resigning herself to the fact that she isn't going to be fully conscious for her History of Magic exam in two hours and she doesn't really remember anything about the International Warlock Convention of 1298. She's trying, halfheartedly, to dredge something up out of her brain when Madame Pomfrey comes back into the room with her arms around a figure wrapped in a rather ragged cloak.

"We'll get you lying down, almost there dear," she's saying in a soothing voice, "You've lost quite a bit of blood. I don't know how you managed to do that to your own stomach, it hasn't been this bad in quite a while…" and they vanish into a small back room, which clicks closed behind them. Lily remembers the not-quite-wolf, and wonders.

She drags herself reluctantly away from the bed and to her exam, not bothering to go down to breakfast. She sits in the front next to Dorcas, who looks over at her in alarm, her eyes rather bloodshot.

"I'll explain later," Lily hisses. "We'll go up to see her once this is over." Dorcas nods tightly.

The exam isn't as bad as Lily had imagined, and she finishes it rather quickly, around the same time as James. He follows her out of the classroom and into the hallway, where Sirius is already waiting for them. Peter and Dorcas come out a few minutes later.

All three boys look exhausted. Peter's hair is disheveled and he yawns widely and sighs.  
"Couldn't remember a bloody thing about the Giant's Rebellion in the 1440's," he mutters.

"I don't even know what I wrote down," Sirius snorts. His shirtsleeves are rolled up and he's got a heavy white bandage rolled around his right arm and a few scratches on his face. There are dark rings under his eyes.

James looks even worse. The cut over his eye that was bleeding last night has closed, probably with the help of a spell, but he's got an enormous purpling bruise over his left eye that's spread up his forehead.

"What on earth happened?" Dorcas rounds on Lily.

"I couldn't sleep last night," Lily repeats the story she told Dumbledore. "Pomfrey says she's going to be alright, but I still want to go up and see her."

"We do, too," Peter says. And they troop off together.

When they get up to the Hospital Wing, Mary is awake, if bleary. She smiles wanly when she sees them, and they hurry to surround her bed.

"McGonagall and Dumbledore've already been in," she says, as Dorcas grasps her hand. "They said that you found me in the Great Hall, Lily, but I know I was out on the Quidditch pitch. And I remember you lot, too. And the forest."

"I may have, erm, fibbed a bit," Lily says. "To keep us all from getting into even more trouble."

"Don't worry, I went with it," Mary smiles wryly. She's pale, and her hands are trembling slightly, but Lily can see a fire smoldering in her eyes.

"Do you remember what happened?" Lily says. Mary nods.

"Sure. I was out playing with Jiejong and a few others—new broom, you know. Wanted to break it in. They left around a quarter to nine, and I flew for another half an hour, maybe. It was a nice night."

Sirius snorts, and Lily smacks him in the knee.

"Anyway, I went to lock my broom up in the furthest shed, the one closest to the forest. I'd done that and I heard this horrible shrieking noise coming from the Whomping Willow. I can't even explain it, it was awful. I walked over there to investigate and Mulciber appeared from among the trees. He chased me, and I ran. I'm a lot faster than he is so I thought I'd gotten away from him but he hit me with something from behind and knocked me over."

"Fuck," James mutters.

"And the rest is pretty much what you imagine," Mary says. She closes her eyes. "He used the Cruciatus Curse on me, quite a bit. And he laughed about it, and he said I deserved it. And then he Petrified me and left me there."

"It wasn't your fault," Dorcas murmurs. Mary opens her eyes and glares at her.

"Yeah, I fucking know. He's a monster. And I'm going to, I'm going to make him pay for this," she grates out, raising up both her hands, which are trembling. "I'm gonna strangle him."

"Not if I do it first," Sirius growls.

"Oh no, Black," Mary snaps. "He's mine."

Lily takes her hand and grins rather violently. Good old Mary.

James gets up and is striding around the Wing restlessly. Peter chews on his thumbnail.

"Madame Pomfrey says I'll be alright in a few days, physically," Mary says. "I've arranged to take the rest of my exams next week if I'm up to it. I feel up to it now, mostly. I feel like I could wrestle a lion, that's how angry I am."

Behind them, Lily hears James whispering something to Madame Pomfrey, who replies, "No boys, he's still asleep. He lost a lot of blood. G[o]uged himself in the stomach, somehow. Come back this evening, I suspect." James turns around and runs both his hands over his face, then sits back down next to Mary's bed.

"I'm glad it wasn't worse," he says.

"I'm glad you found me," Mary smiles up at him. "Thank you, all of you."

"Don't you even mention it, MacDonald," Sirius says.

"We've got our Herbology exam in twenty minutes," Dorcas says, regretfully. "Sorry, Mary, we'll be back tonight alright?"

Mary grasps her hand. "It's fine. I'm off to sleep again, anyway. Good luck with the test, you all."

Lily straightens the covers around Mary's waist, and leaves reluctantly, her mind whirling.


	11. Chapter 11- Wednesday afternoon

The Herbology exam consists of demonstrating the correct way to repot a Fanged Geranium. Lily feels she gets through it pretty well, considering she has 15 thousand different things on her mind. As such, it takes her a little longer than it normally would to do so, but she eventually succeeds. She heads back to the Hospital Wing when she finishes, but it's empty and Mary is snoozing. She sits down on a chair next to Mary's bed, thanking her good sense to have studied for her exams very thoroughly the week before.

She's sitting quietly, staring into space, when she hears a burst of laughter coming from the small back room. It's pretty distinctive laughter, more like a bark. And then she places; it's Sirius Black.

Lily stands and strides across the Hospital Wing and opens the door with determination at the same time that someone pushes on it from the other side. Lily steps forward at the same time the other person does, and she collides bodily with James Potter, whose glasses fly off.

"Bloody hell, Evans!" He barks, scooping them up. "Where'd you come from?"

"Where'd _you_ come from?" Lily tries to peer around him, and James steps in the way, blocking her line of sight.

"Nowhere," he says. "Just, er, just having a bit of a sitdown."

"In a closet?"

"Yes. Love a good closet, me." Sirius's distinctive laughter explodes from inside the room again.

"It's alright, James," says a tired, hoarse voice. "Let her in. From what you've told me, she deserves an explanation."

James frowns, but steps out of the way to let Lily into the little room, and closes the door behind her.

The room is brightly lit, because of late afternoon sun streaming through a large window, and contains a bed and a small bedside table and a few chairs. Peter is sitting on one of them, looking very anxious. Sirius is perched on the windowsill. And Remus Lupin is lying in the bed, with a textbook on his lap. Lily stares at him, in shock.

James and Sirius both look a little battered, but their bruises are scrapes are nothing to how Remus looks. For a start, he looks exhausted. His face is thin, sallow and sunken-looking, and he has enormous dark shadows, like bruises, beneath his eyes. He has a plaster over part of his chin, bandages wound around his left arm and another square, white bandage at the back of his neck. Lily remembers the big black dog, Sirius, Padfoot, sinking its teeth into the not-wolf's neck. Remus's eyes meet hers; they are a strange, luminous gold colour, always have been. And they are very, very familiar.

And something clicks in Lily's head. Every little idiosyncrasy she's noticed about Remus over the years. His oddly-timed absences, often during the middle of the week. His scars. His timid, jerking fear, the first few months of school. His uncanny, almost frighteningly fast movements, when he never looked twice at the Quidditch pitch. Even smaller things that Lily had just filed away as facts about Remus Lupin—the fact that he would never join his friends swimming when the weather got warm, his totally incompetency at potions (they keep wolfsbane in that room), his Boggart, which Lily remembers, is the full moon. It all makes sense now.

"Moony," Lily whispers.

And Remus nods, jerkily, once.

Lily breathes out, heavily. And Sirius hops off the windowsill and strides over to stand directly next to Remus's bed, putting his hand on his shoulder.

"You've got a problem with him, you've got a problem with us," he says shortly. His grey eyes are cold and hard and challenging.

"I don't have a problem with anyone, I just, are you alright?" Lily manages. Sirius relaxes slightly. "Only, that was you Madame Pomfrey brought in this morning, wasn't it? She said you lost a lot of blood."

Remus laughs, quietly. His voice, when he speaks, is hoarse. Lily remembers howling in the night. "I've looked worse, believe me," he says. "I heal fast. I'd be fine if someone," and he shoots a very dirty look at James, "hadn't gored me in the side last night."

"Really lived up to the name, though," Peter says. "Prongs."

James shrugs, sheepishly. "Sorry Moony," he says. "Things got complicated."

"So I've heard," Remus replies. "I'm glad that Mary's alright, and that I didn't—"

"You didn't," Sirius says sharply.

"I know, Pads," Remus says, almost consolingly. "Dumbledore knows," he says to Lily. "So you don't need to worry about that."

Lily sits on an available chair. "I'm not worried," she says. And she isn't, surprisingly. A werewolf is a terribly fictional creature, but she saw it last night, and it didn't hurt her. And she knows Remus, who is sarcastic and silly and studious and terrible at potions and afraid of heights. "I'm just… taking it in." Remus's mouth quirks a little at the corner, a silent _Thank you._

"But what was all the," Lily falters, "the running around without pants and turning into animals thing."

"You weren't wearing pants?" Remus asks.

"Moony," Sirius says. "I never wear pants when I can help it." Remus rolls his eyes.

"Pervert," Peter says cheerfully. Sirius winks.

"Our stupid nicknames," James says. "Not so stupid."

"Arguably still stupid," Peter says. "Coming from the bloke who got stuck with _Wormtail._ It's dead useful, if you're wondering, being able to turn into a rat. Not stupid at all. I'm great at getting in and out of places, it's wonderful for sneaking into the kitchens. I can get out of all sorts of trouble really easily, too."

"Except when it comes to Mrs. Norris," Sirius snorts. Peter glares at him.

"And it's great to explore the school. I know more about Hogwarts that probably anyone. Nobody asks why there's a rat in the corridor. They'd ask about a bloody great stag."

"We don't let James transform in the dorm anymore," Remus says. "Not after what he did to Padfoot's curtains."

Lily feels like she's sitting in on a meeting of a secret club. Which, she supposes, she is. She tries to get the conversation back on track, because all the boys, even Remus, seem giddy, even a little manic. "So you're Animagi," she says.

Sirius nods. "We managed it at the end of Fourth Year. Would have taken a lot less time with Moony's help, but of course we couldn't tell him. It was a bit of a surprise." Remus smiles, sheepishly, from the bed.

"You were fourteen?" Lily splutters. "That's, but it's supposed to be horribly difficult. That's amazing."

"Not to brag," James starts, and Sirius bursts into laughter. "Stuff it, Black!"

"Amazing but really, really illegal," Lily says. "I mean, dying people's robes weird colours and painting graffiti of lions eating snakes in the Great Hall and nicking butterbeer is one thing, but you could get sent to Azkaban for this."

"We know," James's face is suddenly serious. "We didn't do it on a whim—" he's cut off when the door swings open and Madame Pomphrey pokes her head in, carrying a tray with a bowl of soup and a suspicious-smelling goblet balanced on it..

"Alright lads," she says, "visiting hours are over and I know you all have exams in the morning, so out."

"It's just Charms," Sirius says dismissively.

"We won't be in the way, honest," Peter adds.

"Black, Potter, Pettigrew—out!" MadamePomphrey snaps, setting the tray down. "Miss Evans—sorry, didn't see you there, you too. I do not want to see hide or hair of any of you in here until tomorrow, you understand? Remus dear, how are you feeling?"

"Much better, thanks," Remus says.

"Why are we Black, Potter and Pettigrew and he's Remus Dear?" Peter mutters, but he stands and files out the door behind James and Sirius. Lily goes too, and they peer at Mary as they troop out of the Hospital Wing. She's asleep again.

Outside the door, Sirius grins and holds out his hand. James rolls his eyes. "Twat," he says, but roots around in his bag and pulls out a long, heavy-looking length of fabric. Sirius swings it around his shoulders and immediately vanishes. "Bring it back in one piece," James mutters towards the empty air. "And don't get caught." Lily hears Sirius's laughter, and the door to the Hospital Wing swings back open again, then closed.

"I'm going to meet Sarah," Peter says. "I haven't seen her in days."

"Alright mate," James slaps Peter on the shoulder. "Have fun." And Peter strides away. And it's just Lily and James. They stare at each other for a minute and then James's stomach growls, loudly. "Er," James says. "Skipped dinner."

"Yeah, me too," Lily sighs.

"Oh, right," James is suddenly sheepish. "I don't suppose—I mean, if you're hungry we could go grab something."

"Dinner's been over for hours," Lily says sadly.

"Evans," James grins suddenly. "I know where the kitchens are."

"Oh, right. Obviously," Lily says.

The kitchens are directly under the Great Hall, down the hallway that leads to the Hufflepuff common room. Lily follows James along the corridor until he stops in front of a large painting of a bowl of fruit. He reaches out a tickles the large green pear, which giggles and then transforms into a doorknob. The door opens on an enormous, warm room with high ceilings and many stoves and countertops. And it's filled with House Elves, apparently cleaning up what is left of dinner.

"You don't actually nick food, do you?" Lily asks. "They just give it to you, don't they?" James shrugs sheepishly.

"They keep my secrets," he smiles around at the House Elves, several of who wave and greet him as _Master Potter. _Lily snorts.

"I'm sure this is normal for you, a small army to cook you dinner," Lily sits down across from James at a table and digs into the steak and kidney pie an elf had whisked in front of them. "But it never ceases to amaze me. And bother me, too."

"No," James is shoveling mouthfuls of pie into his mouth happily. "My mum grew up with them as a kid, but we never had them at home."

"You actually did chores?" Lily raises an eyebrow.

"Well, I was supposed to," James says. "That doesn't mean I ever actually followed through with it."

They eat in silence for a few minutes. A house elf brings Lily tea, and she takes it and offers her thanks. The house elf bows and scurries away. Lily sips it, thinking that there are some aspects of Wizarding society that she'll never really understand.

"Do you think Mulciber will be expelled?" James says suddenly.

"He has to be," Lily says. "If the school can prove it was the Cruciatus Curse." She frowns at her teacup for a minute. "What did you mean when you said Sirius thought Mulciber and Avery had been taught to use Unforgivables? And when Peter said he thought it was only a matter of time?"

James frowns, rubbing at his nose underneath his glasses. "It's just a guess," he says. "We don't have any proof, though I suppose this could change that, if the Ministry gets involved. I already wrote to my dad and told him about it, and he's concerned."

"Were you expecting Mulciber to attack Mary?" Lily asks, alarmed.

"No. Well, not specifically." Outside of last night, this is the most serious Lily has ever seen him. "But we've been expecting someone in that group to do something like this. I think it's like an initiation."

"An initiation?" Lily stares at him. "That sounds a little paranoid, Potter. The Slytherins aren't in a secret society."

"Not all of them, no. And it's not just Slytherins, though Mulciber's cruel enough and smart enough to be the kind of people they'd want."

"Who'd want?"

"Death Eaters," James barks out. "Voldemort."

Lily rolls her eyes. "Potter, Death Eaters don't want to recruit schoolchildren," she says. The name has been tossed around a lot lately, mostly in connection with the recent Muggle killings. "And the Prophet says they're just a fringe group of the Knights of Walpurgis, and not dangerous."

"The Prophet publishes what the Minister of Magic wants," James points out, and Lily sighs because it's true. "The Ministry doesn't want people to be worried about something that they don't know anything about, and they know basically nothing about the Death Eaters. My dad's in charge of the investigation, Evans. They don't know who Voldemort is, or what he wants. All they know that people in very weird masks have been attacking Muggles."

"Then how do you know any of this?" Lily snaps.

"I told you," James says adamantly. "I don't know for sure. But I do know who a few of the Death Eaters are. Or Sirius does." Lily puts a few things together in her head.

"His family," she whispers. James nods.

"Specifically his cousin Bellatrix, and her husband. Both Lestranges, really. He heard them talking about it over summer. Bellatrix was telling Sirius's brother he should join, but he needed to prove himself first."

Lily thinks of some of the things she's heard about Sirius's family, and Sirius's own fight with his brother in the hallway, and nods. "That's why he left."

"I think so," James says. "He hasn't really talked about it. But anyway," he shakes his head. "We think, and my dad agrees with us, that the Lestranges and people like Malfoy are teaching dark magic to kids they think might want to be Death Eaters and then encouraging them to, er, try them out."

"And Mary pissed Mulciber off, so he decided to get even," Lily, feeling sick to her stomach all of a sudden, drinks more tea.

"I think it's been going on for awhile," James nods. "But never on this scale. Little stuff, disguised as pranks."

"But this has gone beyond that."

"Yeah," James agrees. "Which means that you need to be careful."

"Me?"

"Everyone, really. I mean, I'm sure they'd love to target me or Sirius. Sirius especially. But you're Muggleborn and you intimidate them and you pissed off Snape."

Lily sighs. She should have known the conversation would come around to this. "Snape won't do anything to me," she says. "He's an idiot and has interests that concern me, but he'd never intentionally hurt anyone."

"Are we talking about the same Snape?" James snorts. "Because I have known him to intentionally hurt people. Me, for one. Remus." He stops himself short and makes a big show of drinking his pumpkin juice.

"What does Lupin have to do with this?"

"Nothing. The fact still remains that he keeps dangerous company."

"Potter," Lily says decisively. "I don't want to have this conversation anymore."

"I'm just trying—"

"Potter." Lily adopts her Look. James shuts his mouth. She stands up with the realization that there are still exams tomorrow, that she still has to prepare for them, that the world is continuing on around this strange and scary series of events.

"I—" James says from behind her. Lily turns around to frown at him. "Sorry," he says and winces. "Merlin. We very nearly went a whole conversation without getting into an argument."

Despite herself, Lily laughs. "It's okay," she says. She turns to go and then pauses with one more thing on her mind.

"You did that for him, didn't you?" she says. James's left eyebrow goes up. "Becoming Animagi, I mean. It wasn't just something you decided to do because you can, or to get into trouble. You did it for Remus. To help him."

"Yeah," James says. "Pretty daft, I know."

"No," Lily shakes her head. "I think it was pretty brave." And she turns and leaves the kitchen, leaving James sitting by himself at the table.


End file.
